Ms. Ruta Sepetys and Mr. Steve Sheinkin, authors of award-winning books, visited Homestead High School (HHS) on Sept. 29 to speak with a collection of students about authorship, writing, and research.
Both authors are multi-award winners and have each published numerous books. Works of Sepetys include Between Shades of Grey and Salt to the Sea, while works of Sheinkin are The Notorious Benedict Arnold and Bomb. The pair of authors came to speak at HHS because of the publication of their collaborative work, The Bletchley Riddle, a book set in 1940.
Sheinkin himself has written multiple nonfiction books, and often spends the afternoons of his days researching for his writing, though this can pose as an obstruction to the writing itself. He has had to abandon a book before, unable to find enough reliable sources to complete it.
“Some stories just can’t be done as nonfiction – even though you know great stuff happened, you just can’t find out enough about it,” said Sheinkin.
However, Sheinkin encourages readers of his works to do research for themselves, despite his personal roadblocks.
“I really hope my books will make readers curious to know more about something in the story,” said Sheinkin. “I hope they’ll be inspired to do their investigation into some little known corner of history.”
Mrs. Suzanne Zellmann, research and digital learning specialist at HHS, was one of the main hands working behind the scenes to prepare this author visit. Zellmann has worked at HHS for many years and has been directly involved in other author visits.
“The way the visit came about is that I was able to hear the two authors speak at the WEMTA Conference last spring. It’s a conference for teachers and media specialists, and they were a keynote,” Zellmann said.
In previous years, before COVID-19, HHS held author visits with the help of a donation from a family whose son graduated from HHS.
“Before COVID, we were really fortunate to… [have] a donation a number of years ago… given to the English department of 10,000 dollars, and we were able to allocate that money for author visits over a ten-year time,” Zellmann said.
Mrs. Angelina Cicero, English teacher, also spoke about the author visit. Cicero has been at HHS for over a decade and was present for the visits before COVID-19, as well as for Sepetys and Sheinkin’s.
“I would say they were pretty similar to what you experienced… we have typically done the gathering in the library where we were, and with the sound system and groups of creative writing students but also other classes who were available at the time coming in… there’s almost always a reading at the beginning,” Cicero said regarding the differences from previous years to this most recent visit.
Cicero commented that she believed that the author visit went successfully.
“I thought they were very generous in their honesty with their answers… I thought it went really well, and I thought the students were very receptive,” Cicero said.
Zellmann also believed that the author visit went smoothly.
“The only tricky part was probably coordinating with our classroom teachers… everyone was really enthusiastic and flexible and excited for their visit,” said Zellmann on difficulties.
After the authors spoke for the HHS visit, many students approached Sheinkin and Sepetys with questions.
In response to one of these questions, Sheinkin said, “My best advice: carry a notebook. It sounds old fashioned, and of course you can record anything on your phone, but for me it helps a lot to have a little notebook with me.”
