Bigger Isn’t Always Better (but “big” books can be pretty great)

Last week, a couple of other teachers and I took the seventh grade to an author event with Holly Goldberg Sloan, the author of three fabulous middle grade and young adult books: Counting by 7s, I’ll Be There, and Just Call My Name. The event was part of the Free Library of Philadelphia’s amazing Teen Author Series, a program that’s funded by the extraordinarily generous Field family. Seventh to twelfth grade classes at schools in the area can reserve seats for these events. Participating students get their own copies of an author’s book, and then they hear the author speak and get their books signed.

When I found out that Holly Goldberg Sloan was going to be a part of this fall’s Teen Author Series, I was eager to sign up for her event. Some students had read Holly Goldberg Sloan’s Counting by 7s over the summer, as part of my summer reading book pair, and they loved the funny, poignant, and sweeping story as much as I did. I knew those students would love getting to see the author in person, and I had a feeling that many other students would enjoy the book, too.

When we’ve attended Teen Author Series events in the past, we’ve gone to the Central Branch of the library, but this event was at a different branch, a little bit farther away from our school. Because the events at the Central Branch have had such large audiences, I warned my students that if the event was too crowded, we might not be able to stay long enough to get our books signed. “If there are too many people in line ahead of us, we’ll have to leave our books instead of waiting in line,” I told them. “But don’t worry–I’ll go back to pick up the signed books later.” And I didn’t want them to be disappointed if they didn’t actually get to talk to Holly, or if they didn’t get a chance to ask a question during the Q and A, so I tried to keep their expectations in check. “There will probably be hundreds of people there,” I explained. “But it will still be great to hear her speak!”

So imagine my surprise when we made it to the other branch of the library and were guided into a small room that was completely empty except for around 50 chairs and a table at the front. It ended up being just us and the students from one other school! My students refrained from asking me what the heck I’d been talking about, but they were delighted when Holly perched at the edge of the table in front of the room and talked to them–just casually, personably told them stories and talked! They got to ask all of their questions, and they each got a special moment with Holly when she signed each book. The larger library events we’ve attended have also been wonderful (I mean, you really can’t argue with a free author event that includes a free book for every student!). But I loved the intimate tone of this smaller gathering.

Counting by 7s is a big, ambitious book, both in terms of its length and in terms of the scope of the story. There are many point of view characters whose ages span many years, and the story begins with a big, devastating event. Holly Goldberg Sloan was a screenwriter before she became a novelist, and Counting by 7s is going to be a movie; reading it, you can see how the cinematic story will work beautifully on the big screen. Holly’s YA books are similarly big and sweeping.

But during Holly’s informal talk, she not only talked about writing screenplays and novels, but she also spoke about how she enjoys poetry. She mentioned that the titles of her books can lead to some great book spine poetry and encouraged students to find books and stack them in different orders, to create small poems with the titles. She explained that sometimes, with an activity like book spine poetry, the small scope of the task (you only have book titles to work with) can lead to a lot of creativity.

As I’ve mentioned on this blog before, I’m a fan of giving students structured creative writing assignments because an assignment with tight, clear instructions can often yield amazingly creative results. I left the event thinking about the benefits of small events and small, tightly focused writing tasks and the awesome power of big programs like the Teen Author Series and big stories like the ones Holly tells.