The school book club had the opportunity to Skype with Lance Rubin, author of Denton’s Little Death Date, on January 11 in the library. is event was organized by English Department Leader Amy Miller, Library and Media Specialist Nancy Carlson and English teacher Lauren Luciani.

After Nicola Yoon’s visit on December 1, the club wanted to find another way to increase students’ access to authors.

“I had read and loved Lance’s book and because he also happens to be a friend of mine whom I have known since childhood, I know how committed he is to his readers and how excited he would be to talk to a group of them,” Miller said.

During the Skype call, readers had the chance to talk and ask Rubin questions about his book.

The book is about a world in which everyone knows their death date and follows the story of Denton Little, a teenager whose death date is on his senior prom. Throughout the story, Denton

Little looks for answers to the rea- soning behind his fast approaching “death date”.

Rubin based the characters in his book on people he knew in an at- tempt to make them more relatable.

“The interaction we had with the author brought the creative writ- ing process into a new perspective. It was refreshing to see how the books we love so much are formulated. As a person who enjoys writing, learning about the writing process from a published author

is very different from the kind of writing which we do in school,” sophomore Reya Kalaiarasu said.

Carlson believes that talking with the author can improve students’ ability to understand the text.

“I believe students gain a better understanding of the book by talking to the author because they were able to ask questions about the story like why they decided to do X instead of Y. Another thing kids learn about is the writing pro- cess. To hear these stories that they tell you makes them seem more real,” Carlson said.

Rubin inspired students to explore their own motivations in writing.

“Mr. Rubin emphasized that the quality of literature is based on a person’s integrity towards their inspiration. Seeing his inspiration, and how he brought that to life was motivating for me to pick up a pen and put my ideas into words,” Kalaiarasu said.

The book club is open to anyone and changes books every couple of months. The next book they plan to read is Rikers High by Paul Volponi who will also come to the school to speak with students.