[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
By Laura Drinan
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Pollard Middle School students were starstruck by the author of their One School One Book’s novel, “The Seventh Most Important Thing,” Shelley Pearsall, who visited the school on September 26. Students celebrated the half-day with talks from Pearsall and activities relating to the book, which was read by the entire student body and faculty.
As the eighth graders headed into the auditorium for an assembly with Pearsall, the seventh graders worked on making trash collages to recreate James Hampton’s “The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly,” which plays a huge role in the novel. Some of the tin-foil creations included a jellyfish-like creature, 3D symmetrical designs, and buildings made from anything and everything one could find in a dumpster, like paper plates, egg cartons, string, and scrap cardboard.
Shelley Pearsall shared her experiences becoming a successful author and answered questions about the book with the eighth grade class before they were dismissed for the day. Pearsall began the presentation with the history of her childhood writing experiences. “I used to write in a closet because I thought writers needed to have their own space. So in elementary school, I moved into my bedroom closet with a table and a lamp and I would sit in this closet and write stories. My parents really worried about me a lot,” Pearsall said humorously. “Other kids did normal things and I did writing in a closet.”
Taking inspiration of Shelley Pearsall’s “The Seventh Most Important Thing,” students created 3D garbage art while the author visited their school.
Shelley Pearsall, author of “The Seventh Most Important Thing,” visited Pollard Middle School and showed her collage of rejection letters that she received before publishing her first novel.
Students met with Shelley Pearsall after her presentation to talk to her one-on-one about her book, “The Seventh Most Important Thing,” and get her autograph.
Pearsall’s closet writing produced many short stories, though, including her rewrite of “James and the Giant Peach” and an original story about the refugee crisis after the Vietnam War. Pearsall told the story of her attempt to get her original story published and shared her first rejection letter from a publishing house. The eighth graders laughed at Pearsall’s collage of rejection letters that she kept throughout all her years as motivation.
The eighth graders were curious about writers’ salaries, so Pearsall shared the joy and pride she felt when a publisher finally took an interest in one of her books and offered her a ten thousand dollar advance and she yelled out her front door, “I’m going to be a published author!” Pearsall also shared the amusing story of her dad moving copies of her first published book from the back of the book store to the best-sellers table.
Pearsall gave writing advice to the eighth graders and suggested they cut up their writing and piece the ideas together. She also talked about the process of writing and asked a volunteer to hold all 11 of the novel’s drafts, which quickly turned into a 22-pound pile of paper. Including details about the book’s journey to the public after the text was finalized, Pearsall reminded the audience that the publishing house’s marketing department was responsible the design of the book jacket and the title, so the best way to preview a book is by reading the first few pages.
Finally, Pearsall shared some advice for the aspiring authors in the audience. “Find a reader that you can share your writing with, because writers have to have readers,” she started “Definitely be persistent. Sometimes it doesn’t work out, but you have to stick with it.
“The third piece of advice is to lose the phone at least for an hour or two each day to be aware of the world around you.”
