One book works to bring community together

Having just finished up a similar program in a town in Montana, Ben Mikaelsen said, the value of the one he was embarking Monday afternoon in El Dorado is embodied in the dialogue it will generate.

Mikaelsen, a writer from Bozeman, Mont., stood on the stage in the auditorium at El Dorado High School, talking to students as he launched this year’s One Book/One Community program in this city.

Mikaelsen’s young adult novel, “Touching Spirit Bear,” has been chosen as the book to be shared across the El Dorado community in this year’s One Book/One Community program.

In “Touching Spirit Bear” Mikaelsen paints a picture of a juvenile offender, examining the roots of his anger without absolving him of responsibility for his actions.

For him, Mikaelsen said, the book is also his own “emotional autobiography.”

“Touching Spirit Bear” takes the reader through the young offender’s questioning of a society in which angry people make victims of their peers and communities.

It also offers a testimonial to to the power of a pain that can destroy or lead to healing.

Mikaelsen said he had just finished up a program in a town in Montana, where there had been an “exploding of intolerance” over the course of about a one-year period.

By STEVE SMITH Times Staff Writer

Full Story: http://www.eldoradotimes.com/articles/2006/02/16/news/news3.txt