Badham of Scout fame will kick off Big Read

Spokane’s The Big Read event has landed a big name: Mary Badham, who played Scout in the 1962 film version of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

The Big Read – a community-wide book event – is focusing on Harper Lee’s novel throughout February and March.

Badham will appear at the event’s gala kickoff, Feb. 16, 5:30 p.m. at the Lincoln Center, 1316 N. Lincoln St.

She appeared in episodes of the “The Twilight Zone” and “Dr. Kildare” in the 1960s, and in 2005 filmed a movie with Allison Janney called “Our Very Own.”

Yet Badham still is best known for her portrayal of Scout, one of the most memorable literary and film characters of our time.

“The Big Read” will continue with about 20 events – book discussions, mock trials, reader’s theater presentations and lectures – through March 11. Keep an eye out for a complete schedule as the event nears.

The voice of Sherman

Want to learn more about National Book Award-winning author Sherman Alexie?

Find yourself a copy of “Conversations With Sherman Alexie” (University Press of Mississippi, $22 paperback, $50 hardback), edited by Nancy J. Peterson.

The book compiles 21 interviews with Alexie. Some appeared in major outlets such as the Los Angeles Times, others in bookstore blogs.

It’s a fascinating overview of Alexie’s extraordinary career. The first interview is from 1993; the last from 2007.

The book is part of the publisher’s Literary Conversations Series.

Trejo and Howell

The University of Washington Press’ spring/summer catalog shows two books of local interest on the way:

• “Ruben Trejo: Beyond Boundaries” – An overview of the late local artist and Eastern Washington University professor, edited by Ben Mitchell, art curator of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. Includes 110 color illustrations. To be released in April.

• “Dreamless and Possible: Poems New and Selected” – A collection of poetry by Christopher Howell, the award-winning poet and professor at EWU. To be released in May.

A Yaak chronicle

Here’s another newly released book of regional interest: “How It Looks Going Back: Growing Up in the Montana Woods,” by Doris Knowles Pulis (Riverbend Publishing, $12).

It’s a fascinating memoir of growing up in Montana’s Yaak River valley in the 1950s, when that country was even more remote and secluded than it is today.

There’s a local angle as well. After the family left the Yaak valley in 1955, they moved to Spokane, where the author lived for many years.

She now lives in Bend, Ore.

Marty Robinette reading

Marty Robinette, the assistant principal of North Central High School and former Lewis and Clark High School teacher, will read from his book “Delicious On My Ears: The Story of Missionary John Newman” (Xulon Press, $15.99) on Wednesday, 7 p.m. at Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave.

The book is about the remarkable life of the late Newman, a Spokane pastor who became a Christian missionary among the Montagnard people of South Vietnam.

During the fall of that country, Newman purchased a ship and led a rescue mission in which he took at least 900 people to safe haven.

Robinette, who knew and worked with Newman, spent years researching and writing this eventful story.