Students at Clifton Middle School in Alleghany County were recently given a chance to meet an author — the actual author of a book they read — and ask her questions.
The author is Claudia Mills, who has written 62 books, including “Zero Tolerance,” which received a Virginia Reader’s Choice Award in 2015-2016 for middle school books.
Seventh graders in English language arts classes taught by Tonya Jones and Charity Simmons read and discussed “Zero Tolerance.” They gathered in Gleason Forum Hall on Friday, February 25, 2022, to meet with Mills via Zoom.
“Students were very excited to have the opportunity to meet the author of the novel that they had just finished reading. This is a rare treat for students as authors of many books that are read in school are no longer alive,” Simmons said.
Prior to meeting Mills, students were assigned to compose questions for the author. The students asked Mills about her career, and they sought specific details related to “Zero Tolerance.”
“They even asked Mrs. Mills what she would have done if she had been one of the characters in the story and was faced with similar situations,” Simmons said.
A native of New York, Mills is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado Boulder. She developed a passion for writing as a child and actually composed her first book as a first grader. She titled the book of basically crayon illustrations, “My Book.”
“I love talking to kids and I love talking about books,” said Mills, whose works are primarily written for students in third grade through middle school.
She wrote “Zero Tolerance” after reading a newspaper story in 1998 about a seventh-grade honor student who faced mandatory expulsion after mistakenly taking her mother’s lunch bag to school. When the girl discovered a paring knife inside the bag, she reported it to the school office. Since knives violated school policy, the school initiated expulsion proceedings.
Mills took the true story and developed it into a novel that centered on a fictional character named Sierra Shepard.
“When I read that story, all I could do was think, ‘What would it be like to be that girl?’ I could relate to that girl. In teaching philosophy, you spend a great deal of time talking about ethics, and I use the book to get the readers to think of the ways people react when they are treated unfairly,” she said.
Throughout their study of the novel, the CMS students completed writing assignments by answering several questions. The questions used familiar scenarios from the book and students would respond by explaining what they would do if they were ever in those scenarios.
In “Zero Tolerance,” Mills used the main character to illustrate how a person’s perspective can change when they encounter consequences from a decision they made. Prior to the knife incident, Sierra was considered to be a perfect student.
“Suddenly none of the lines between good and bad are as clear as she thought they once were for Sierra,” Mills said. “Anyone, even a perfect student like Sierra, can make a decision that has dire and unexpected consequences. I wanted Sierra to change and grow.”
Students said they could relate to the characters in “Zero Tolerance” as they worked to complete their assignments.
One student, Cearra Tingler, said she found the book to be interesting because she has the same first name as its main character.
“It was interesting because the character in the book has my name and the author told us that she got the name from an ex-girlfriend of her son,” Cearra said.
Mills told the students at CMS that she developed into a writer out of her love for reading as a child. Her love for reading was cultivated by her mother, who taught in an elementary school.
Her life as a writer began when her mother handed her a notebook and told her to write poetry.
“My mother was an elementary school teacher who loved to write. When I was six years old she gave me a blank notebook and told me that this was to be my poetry book. So I began to write poetry. This was the beginning of my life as a writer,” she said.
The students at CMS expressed their appreciation for being given the opportunity to meet with Mills.
“It was cool because not many students get to see the author of a book,” Aiden Hinebaugh said.
“It was really cool to meet the author. That is a once in a lifetime thing,” said Jayden Depriest.
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