Humanities Prep's very own teacher Leslie Martinez has spearheaded an initiative to encourage students to read and write by giving them the space to meet and have discussions with authors. This year we were excited to welcome our first author Ashley Woodfolk who wrote The Beauty That Remains.
2017-2018
This year we have already welcomed three authors: Jason Reynolds, Sarah Moon, and Keely Hutton. We have a few more authors in the works for this year, including David Barclay Moore. He wrote The Stars Beneath Our Feet.
For Jason Reynolds' visit, he discussed his new novel, Low Way Down as well as his other novels. He took questions about his writing process and his books from students.
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I felt lucky meeting Sarah Moon. Yailyn Peralta”
Around 20 teachers and students had an intimate conversation with Sarah Moon on her book Sparrow.
“This was actually something new for me. I actually never met a author of a book I read. Sarah Moon is very interesting author and I would like to read more of her book. I don’t read books often so this book Sparrow made me actually sit down and think...I should start picking books that actually catch my eye just like Sparrow. So thank you for allow students in Humanities Prep (me) read this amazing book.”
“I’m very happy to have met her. I feel like she’s a great writer. She answered all my questions. She told us her writing thoughts, and what it took to write her book. I never met an author before but I’m happy she was the first. I’m now looking forward to meeting more. I’m also looking forward to reading her other books. ”
“Meeting Sarah was a good experience. The book was great and the way she answers our questions isn’t like now any other author would answer. I would like to have this experience again in the future.”
“I was feeling so excited and nervous. When I was asking her questions I was nervous because I usually the type who loves to ask questions and all to the point where I can annoy. So one thing I would change is to try to let the other students to try to ask questions. My favorite part was when I came up to her to sign my book. I also told her to give her an advice for to become a writter like her since I’m bad at writing and she said ‘Ndeye, keep writing and asking questions!’”
Keely Hutton's book Soldier Boy recounts the true story of Ricky Richard Anywar, abducted in 1989 at age fourteen by Joseph Kony’s rebel army in the Ugandan civil war (one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts). During her presentation and Q&A, Keely shared a message with the students from Ricky himself. It was really inspiring to our students to hear from Ricky. He is a passionate, happy, optimistic man, and a true inspiration to our students.
