First Schoolwide Read with New York Times Bestselling Author Ruta Sepetys

By Natalie Hayden

We have a wonderful librarian at OCHS - Mrs. Marilyn Pace. Marilyn has been with OCHS for 48 years! Marilyn had a vision for a schoolwide read that began February 2020. Students read Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys who is an internationally known author. Her books have been published in 60 different countries and in 40 different languages. Students received a copy of the book and everyone, students and staff, read the book the last 15 minutes of 3rd block each day. Students had opportunities to win gift certificates and other prizes by dropping off answers to trivia questions about the book in the media center. The read was supposed to end with a personal visit from Ruta but COVID-19 arrived first and the meet was cancelled. Zoom visits took place instead in the large gym in sessions with Ruta Sepety and the students.

Besides giving background details about the book that all OCHS read last year, Ruta talked about her unusual path to writing and promised that if any of the students started to seriously write and had questions, they could contact Ruta on one of her social media outlets.

Another happening that occurred with the read was the Author Fan FaceOff. Author Fan Face-off is a book/ game show, a YouTube showdown, a booklover’s zoom challenge for the pandemic era! In each episode of #AuthorFanFaceOff, there is one great writer and one super-fan who go headto-head on trivia questions based on one of the author’s best loved books. The hosts were author Steve Sheinkin and New York librarian Stacey Rattner, along with guest author Ruta

Sepetys and challenger OCHS sophomore, Maria Pfeifer. Ruta chose the book, Between Shades of Gray; however, Maria stumped Ruta and won the contest.

Maria and Ruta’s trivia game was the first one on the high school level. Stacey and Steve started the Face-Off so younger children would continue to have fun reading during NTI. As time went on, they added middle school and then finally high school. The face-off was recorded April 5 and can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul-bbyW-6w8

Thank you, Marilyn, for making this special event come to fruition. It was a wonderful, insightful event for all. ♠