This past Friday, February 14th, the Library here at WSHS hosted a truly special event- a Zoom call with award-winning author Neal Shusterman. This unique opportunity was extended to select English classes and teachers during 6th period. Shusterman shared insights on his new book, New York Times bestselling, All Better Now. After a brief speech and introduction, Shusterman generously gave the students and staff at WSHS the chance to ask questions about himself, his books, his career, and more. Along with this virtual visit, after buying over 75 signed copies of the book All Better Now, the school was provided with a seemingly endless amount of smiley-face adorned merchandise, not limited to but including beanies, baseball caps, bookmarks, pins, stickers, stress balls, and an original signed and laminated rough draft page straight out of his scrapbook.
While not the most common household name, Shusterman is a very accomplished author and has become globally renowned and revered within the literary community. Shusterman has written over 50 award-winning books —with the majority being on best-selling lists around the world— since he published his first book, The Shadow Club, in 1988. You may not recognize his name, but you may recognize him by the names of his books. Some of his most popular books are the Unwind Dystology, the Skinjacker trilogy, the Arc of a Scythe series, and Challenger Deep.
During this Zoom call with WSHS, students and staff asked many well-thought-out questions, one being a controversial subject today and having stood out. Freshman, Adam Salem asked Shusterman, “What is your opinion on AI, and what is your stance on using it in your writing?” Shusterman responded, “I love AI; [. . .] I use it all the time! I use the dictation feature on my phone and then shove it all into ChatGPT.” Many have objections to AI, but Shusterman implied that it can be a fantastic tool if used correctly, “[I] use [ChatGPT] to punctuate [. . .] what I wrote without making any changes.” Shusterman continued, “I have an exact prompt that I give ChatGPT for it to do what I want,” adding, “I even used AI to create the prompt that I give it,” referring to how difficult it can be for AI to follow guidelines without extremely specific rules. Shusterman continued further, implying that those who don’t adapt and change with technology are or will be left behind.
A seemingly simple question that brought a slightly more in-depth answer, directed towards Shusterman, was asked by Junior, Isai Parada-Nunez: “How do you decide if an idea is worth sharing?” Shusterman answered, “Ideas that keep you up at night are ideas worth following.” He made an example for this from his book Game Changer, mentioning how he was at a high school many years ago when a student asked him to come up with an idea for a book on the spot. He did just that, not thinking anything of it until that same on-the-spot idea kept him up at night one day.
Years later, he wrote a book about it. Shusterman extended his answer, saying, “For me to write a story, it has to be a story that is completely unique, like it’s never been shared before.” He made another example for this out of a different book he was writing; a movie with a similar storyline, The Matrix, had come out at the time. Shusterman realized that the movie was too similar to his work in progress and decided not to publish it.
Before ending the Zoom call, an anonymous senior hurriedly asked a unique question, “How do you keep your worlds, real and artificial, from meshing together in your daily thoughts?” The student further explained “Often, when I get really into a story, my thoughts mesh together, and the difference between the real world and my fake worlds can get fuzzy.” Shusterman answered quite simply, “Luckily, I don’t have that problem.”
Following the Zoom call, the event organizer on WSHS’ side, Librarian Mrs. Deborah Kelly, had much positive feedback. “A few months ago, I first heard about the opportunity for Neal Shusterman to visit. Right away, Mrs. West-Mejia and I wanted to explore this possibility because we knew we had some Shusterman fans. As librarians, we are fortunate to attend state and national conferences [exposing us] to diverse authors. We wanted our students to have the opportunity to hear a published writer’s process and [. . .] ask questions.” — “All English classes were invited to join the virtual author visit on Zoom [on] February 14th at the end of the day. Shusterman shared how his love of writing began when a 9th grade English teacher encouraged him to write for extra credit.” — “Everyone seemed to enjoy the online meetup —including the author. We hope Shusterman’s visit sparked students to see themselves as writers and to keep reading to expand their joy and imagination. We are looking forward to planning our next author visit.”
Overall, in the eyes of students and staff at Woodbridge Senior High School, the Zoom meeting with Neal Shusterman answered many great questions with even greater answers and went extremely well. We, the people of Woodbridge, would love to extend an invitation to Neal Shusterman —or any other published writer— to come back for round two.
