Young adult author Lamar Giles talked to the students of DGN in the DGN Library Feb. 24. Giles can be recognized for his works titled “Star Wars: Sanctuary (A Bad Batch Novel)”, “Fake ID”, and a novel being adapted into a television series named “The Getaway”. Talking about his past, his accomplishments, and his experiences as an author, his goal was to inspire young, aspiring writer and authors.
“I love to talk to high school students because I want you all to see a regular person doing a job you might not have access to otherwise,” Giles said. “More than anything I want students to recognize that no goal is out of reach, no matter where you come from. It might be difficult, and might not happen as fast as you like, but it’s not impossible.”
The presentation, which lasted roughly 35 minutes, was showcased to DGN English students during their English class’s instructional time.
“I thought he seemed really nice and he covered a lot of interesting points in his presentation,” sophomore Leah Achilles said.
The presentation stimulated conversation between Giles and the DGN student body. Although some asked questions about writing and becoming an author, Giles was able to bond with students on more casual topics.
“It’s always interesting to see where the conversation will go, and a lot of times that can be determined by a single surprising question,” Giles said. “In one session, someone asked me ‘Jordan or LeBron?’ My answer was Jordan, of course, but what starts out as a book talk can become sports talk or a hip-hop debate, and those are awesome moments.”
The DGN librarians were eager to have Giles come to the school. There were many deciding factors for determining Giles to be their guest speaker.
“His books are really popular. He has three on the Lincoln Award list,” librarian Allison Bava said. “We had also been told by other authors that he was a good speaker with students. And that was true.”
The school’s objective in hosting Giles was to reach as many students as possible and expose them to themes of perseverance.
“We had a couple of goals. Some being for him to talk about his publishing experience, about his successes, his challenges, and what he believes to be his failures that he had to overcome,” Bava said. “Teachers who had subs reported that the students seemed to really like it and had positive feedback.”
