Local reader reads area writer

Though Gary Malm is no longer in school, he's done some homework recently.. The homework? Finding the right piece to read at Grand Forks Central's Literary Lunches.

And at yesterday's session of Literary Lunches he read from Gary Paulsen's Soldier's Heart, the story of Charley Goddard, a fifteen-year-old, one of the first Minnesota volunteers during the Civil War. Malm, a retired teacher and current Grand Forks County county commissioner,  found the book on a list of the best read-alouds for kids.

He not only read from the novel, he read about Paulsen, a Thief River Falls native. Malm recounted what Paulsen said of the librarian in his home town: "When she handed me a library card, she handed me the world."

Malm himself is an avid reader. "I read all over the place, " he said. "I have four [books] going right now."

And if you're interested in finding out what Civil War battles really looked like, (in their original, uncommercialized state)  Malm suggested you go to Tennessee to see a reenactment of the Battle of Shiloh where it took place.