Authors recently visited our Middle School (MS) to enrich current units of study. Seventh graders hosted a Q&A session with award-winning author Reyna Grande, whose memoir, “The Distance Between Us,” is central to their cross-curricular Anatomy of a Human Project. The story delves into Reyna’s life growing up in rural Mexico, family separation, and her harrowing migration across the U.S.-Mexico border when she was 9 years old. In response to students’ insightful questions, Reyna revealed how she was “grappling with the trauma of these experiences” while writing the book and decided not to allow “adult Reyna” to tell this story, as she wanted the tone to represent the child version of herself. The book was “an act of healing… a way to give Little Reyna control of her story,” she said. She also remarked on how as an adult she “broke the cycle” of poverty and was the first in her family to attend college. In turn, students shared their favorite parts of the book.

Meanwhile, this afternoon 8th graders, who read “The Berlin Boxing Club” in their English class, met author Robert Sharenow, an award-winning writer and President of Programming for A+E Global Media. Students had previously learned boxing techniques, a partnership with the Health & Wellness Department, to connect with the journey of the main character, a Jewish man in Pre-WWII Germany. During his visit, Robert shared his own journey to becoming a writer and imparted some words of wisdom such as, on the road to success “failure is critically important” and “if you have an idea of something you want to do in life, just start doing it.” Thanks so much to our guest authors for taking the time to speak to our students—and to our MS faculty for facilitating these meaningful experiences for our students!