New Bonners library reading program to start

Adults and young adults are invited to participate in an innovative reading program starting Feb. 4 and ending March 22. 

Sponsored by the Community Coalition for Families and directed by the Boundary County Library, participants will explore the real life issues and challenges of growing up in today’s world through three best-selling and critically-acclaimed young adult novels by Chris Crutcher.

Registration for the library book group begins Feb. 4.

  A limited number of books are available for checkout by library book group participants.  A

ny extra copies will be available for other book groups on a first-come, first-served basis after Feb. 18.

The Read Chris Crutcher Program will include a library book group with book discussions scheduled for Feb. 18, March 4, and March 18, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the library meeting room.

The reading program will be followed by personal appearances by Chris Crutcher Tuesday afternoon, March 22, at two special assemblies at the high school for students and invited guests.

Cruther will also speak at the library Tuesday evening to the library book group and others. He will share his insight and expertise with members of the Community Coalition and guests at a special breakfast meeting on Wednesday, March 23. 

Crutcher will  sign books at the library later Wednesday morning. 

As Crutcher explains in his autobiography, “The King of the Mild Frontier,” his characters tell some tough truth in tough stories that draw heavily from personal experience and his many years as a therapist and child protection specialist.

Crutcher  has been a child and family therapist at the Spokane Mental Health Center and is chairperson of the Spokane Child Protection Team.

Each of the three books chosen for the program exemplifies Crutcher’s gifts as a storyteller. 

“Staying Fat” for Sarah Byrnes is praised by reviewers as a transcendent story of love, loyalty, and courage.

“T.J. Jones and the Cutter Allnight Mermen,” easily the most challenged swim team in the history of high school sports, teach memorable lessons in Whale Talk of forgiveness—and hope. 

Then there is “The Sledding Hill,” a story set in an eerily familiar small town  located  close to the Canadian border in the Idaho panhandle  that, according to a starred review, entertains, inspires, invites intellectual inquiry. 

The library book group discussions will also include presentations concerning the child safety and health issues raised in the three books and how they are being addressed in our own community. 

For more information, or to register for the book group, call the library at 267-3750.  Crutcher fans or would be fans may also contact Craig Anderson, Bonners Ferry High School English Department, or Lori Reynolds, BFHS librarian.