On March 7th Wakefield hosted three special guests in the library: Lamar Giles -Fake ID, Ellen Oh – Prophecy, and Jessica Spotswood – Born Wicked. These authors gave a few hours of their time to get Wakefield students interested in their books. All three sat right in the center of the students who surrounded them, eager to ask questions about these authors’ journey and inspiration.

Spotwood caught student attention when she began her speech with, “My book is about witches and kissing.” She went on to explain that she is a big fan of kissing, and knows what teenagers are truly interested in. One visitor, Senior Kidist Asegahegh, told us how she was very engaged when she read Spotwood’s book: Born Wicked, “there was a number of image[s] described in every flip of the page.”

Oh explained to the audience how she gets her creative writing juices flowing by saying, “I read a lot of fantasy.” Mr. Giles wanted to incorporate people of color in his book because he said, “I don’t see people of color in most books being the ‘good guy’ or ‘hero’.”

The three authors were very persuasive. They wanted each attendee to read their books, and read more in general. They shared intimate details about their separate lives from being authors. These details helped to make the visit more personal and enjoyable. Spotwood, Giles, and Oh talked about taking care of their families, working in a box office, and the ladies even joked about making coffee for their husbands.

Spotwood is the only author who is a full time writer. Oh spends most of her time taking care of her children and balancing her writing work schedule. She shared that her most productive writing time is from midnight-5am. Giles, on the other hand, writes from after work until the early dawn hours.

These authors seemed to make an impact on the audience. Students were chatting about their excitement for some of the new book titles they heard about in the panel discussion as they left the library. Wakefield needs more author visits! The tone after the discussion was one of interest and a piqued curiosity about reading. Let’s capitalize on this interest in the final two months of the school year. Talk to your teacher about having an author visit today!