J.K. Rowling sat in a caf and spoke of her rags to riches tale, Lemony Snicket shared the unfortunate plots of his books and Sarah Dessen read excerpts from her book as she worked from home.
As odd as it sounds, all this took place at the Bob Courtway Middle School media center.
Although these award-winning authors didn't actually travel to Conway, their personalities came to life Friday as the eighth-grade students in the Bob Courtway drama club participated in the school's first author day.
"What they have done is selected their favorite author, researched them, read basically all the books the author has written and essentially they have become the author," Cindy Romeo, English teacher, said.
Stations were set up in the media center with props, books, music and more to recreate the setting in which each author works and English classes rotated in and out to hear about the authors firsthand.
"They know so much about the authors that some of them are brave enough to even take questions from the students as the author," Romeo said. "It's pretty impressive."
Caitlin Straw, who portrayed Sarah Dessen, created a home-like atmosphere at her station, complete with scattered toys for Dessen's four-month-old baby. She read from the book, "Dreamland," and shared details about her life, from her favorite television shows to her family.
Straw stayed in character throughout her performance and even rushed the students by saying her editor will be mad if she doesn't get another chapter finished.
Devon Conrad brought J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, across the pond to Conway on Friday, complete with a British accent. Conrad said she chose to become Rowling during the event because she is her favorite author and her idol.
"I just think it is so neat how she started off poor and on welfare and through her creativity and her imagination she became a rich and famous author," Conrad said. "I love to write and I would like to be like that someday."
Conrad decorated her station with what she called a small portion of her Harry Potter collection and said if she included everything, it would have taken up half of the media center.
"I already knew most of the stuff about J.K. Rowling's life but I did access some of her autobiographies to prepare," Conrad said. "And it has been really cool to get to tell people about her, but it's always fun to do stuff for drama club."
Lauren Cain was one of the students who chose to become a book character rather than an author and took on the personality of Jane from the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer.
"I wanted to be Jane because I love these books so much, I think they are even better than Harry Potter," Cain said. "And it's been a lot of fun talking to the other students it's better than math."
S.E. Hinton, author of "The Outsiders," was portrayed by Eileen Ablondi, who said she became even more interested in her author as she learned more about her life.
"I first read 'The Outsiders' in fifth-grade and I really liked it, so I thought she would be interesting," Ablondi said. "But then I realized she had written six other books and they are all really good."
Ferris Jackson, the media center specialist who came up with the idea for author day, said the concept came from a discussion about a museum of authors.
"It sounded neat but I thought it may be more interesting for them if the authors actually came to life," Jackson said. "And this is something the students wouldn't get bored with like a poster board they may just glance at and walk away."
Jackson also said she was very pleased with the way everything turned out Friday.
"The students have actually done really well and have been taking it seriously," Jackson said. "And Mrs. Romeo worked very hard with them on their presenting and acting skills."
The other students who participated in Bob Courtway's author day are Chelsey Herrold, who played Sarah Weeks, Molli Henager, who played Lisi Harrison, Haley Turnage, who played Annette Curtis Klause, Tyshae Sanders, who played Ann Schraff, and Jolyon Larson, who played Lemony Snicket.
(Staff writer Jessica Bauer can be reached by e-mail at jessica.bauer@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1236. To comment on this and other stories in the Log Cabin, log on to www.thecabin.net. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)
