Regional bookclub welcomes author

A conflicted Lida Wallace finds new dangers and new friends in a school for troubled girls. This is the story that will be read at a statewide book club event known as Everybody Reads.

This year, author Erin Saldin’s  book, “The Girls of No Return,” was chosen after one of the librarians heard her speak at an Idaho conference and was impressed by her presentation of the book, said Kristie Kirkpatrick, director for Whitman County Library.

Saldin has been visiting different schools and libraries in the area since Nov. 10. Today, she will visit the 1912 Center in Moscow at noon to discuss her book.

Everybody Reads is an event in which an author and book are chosen and everyone in the community gets the chance to read the book and then listen to the author talk about it. The event stretches to libraries and bookstores across the region, including throughout the Whitman County and the Lewis-Clark region.

“The goal is to get everybody reading,” Kirkpatrick said.

Nichole Kopp, Whitman County Library teen librarian and coordinator for the event this year, said the event starts when the book is announced and then copies are sent to participating libraries, including public and school libraries.

“It’s not often you get the opportunity to read a book and then meet the author and ask the questions about the book you just read,” Kopp said.

This is Kopp’s first year as the coordinator for the event for the Whitman County Library and she said she thinks the process itself is pretty smooth, coordinating with the authors and the schools.

 “The Girls of No Return,” is a story about a girl named Lida who is sent to a school for troubled girls called Alice Marshall School, set in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area in northern Idaho, Saldin said.

“She forms two friendships there that are equally beneficial and hold the potential for danger for her,” Saldin said.

The 50 girls come from all walks of life, and the book explores their relationships and how they have to deal with the issues they have, Kopp said.

“The idea of bringing together all these girls that may have issues with bullying or self-harm,” Kopp said. “I thought it was interesting in how their relationships develop throughout the book.”

Although the story is fictional, the Frank Church River of No Return is a real place in Idaho. The girls’ issues are real issues that some teens would have to deal with today. The setting, putting the girls in the middle of this vast wilderness area, gives it a sort of wilderness survival feel but with a few loopholes.

“I had always wanted to write a young adult novel set in the wilderness and starred girls,” Saldin said. “I felt like there were a lot of wilderness survival stories with boys.”

The girls’ issues come from a large variety, such as stealing, cutting, fighting, and other forms of physical and emotional self-harm, she said. It’s all the things one would expect to see and then some much darker issues, like possibly killing people.

While nobody would identify with the need to murder, Saldin said the reception for her book has been positive because it discusses issues audiences can identify with, like eating disorders or bullying.

“Those are things that teens have to deal with to one degree or another,” she said.

To better understand what she was writing about, Saldin said she did a lot of research, especially in psychology. She also studied sociopaths, narcissism, and how self-harm manifests and what it looks like.

Saldin said she had a difficult time writing the book. Despite being emotionally exhausting, she said she ultimately felt good about it.

“I think it was very draining to create a character who has such a hard time making the right decision for herself or allowing herself to be happy,” Saldin said.