Former RR man to hold book signing at Library this Friday

By Ken Johnston
Editor

Former Rainy River resident John Bouchard, a 1985 graduate of Rainy River High School, will be returning to the community this Friday as an author.
Bouchard, who is an elementary school teacher in Dodge City, Kansas, has also been writing children’s books for the past several years and this Friday he will be holding a book signing at the Rainy River Public Library for his third book “Mr. Martin Gets Even.”
This new book deals with the subject of bullying an dis geared to kids from about grades 5-9. As a teacher Bouchard sees kids bullying first hand and as a person who himself was bullied in school, he has drawn from all those experiences to write this latest book.
In the book there is a teacher who sees bullying and, “tries to secretly get even with the bullies by trying to show them the consequences of it. He does not hurt them, but makes the consequences more apparent.”
Bouchard said any of the incidents from his past or his classroom have been changed enough not to incriminate anyone. However, he points out that many kids who are bullied get depressed. “In the movies bullies always get it in the end. However, in real life they often go on with their lives not realizing what they have done to their victims.”
Bouchard hopes that when he completes his fourth book, another one on bullying, that he will be able to travel to schools back home and speak to kids first hand about the subject.
His first two books are unrelated to this one but were a series. The first one was called “A Taste of Soda” and the second one “Tunnel Hill.” All of them are geared towards kids.
Bouchard did hold a book reading at Riverview School a number of years ago and enjoys coming back to the area to see old friends and family.
His book reading will be this Friday from 3-5 p.m. at the RR Library. He will have books for sale at $11 each or sets of all three for $30. Everyone is welcome. Rainy River Library is now located at the corner of Main St. and Hwy. 11 in the former Lowes Furniture building.