Author Visit: Rajani LaRocca

Middle School students enjoyed a presentation from visiting author Rajani LaRocca on Monday. Dr. LaRocca was born in Bangalore, India, and immigrated to the U.S. as a baby, spending her childhood in Kentucky. After attending Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, she has acted as a physician since 2001. She and her family (and an impossibly cute dog!) live in Massachusetts. She has always been an omnivorous reader – cereal boxes, comic books, fortune cookie fortunes, magazine articles, and, of course, novels. She believes that promoting diversity in children’s literature leads to empathy, and empathy makes the world a better place. Her books include Midsummer's Mayhem, Much Ado About Baseball, the Newbery-Honor-winning novel in verse, Red, White, and Whole, and the newly released Mirror to Mirror. --Paraphrased from:  https://www.rajanilarocca.com/about/

Dr. LaRocca signed books for students at lunch, then, after being introduced by Diya M (6th), gave a presentation on: "Seeing Yourself in Stories: How I Write My Novels." She talked about her background as an avid reader, and many of the books that shaped her as a middle school student. She also talked about how she didn't see herself in books as a kid, and how important it is for readers to see their own stories reflected in books--and how writers can and should draw on their own memories to create their characters and stories. At the end, she talked about how we all belong here. The students asked lots of intelligent questions, and Dr. LaRocca was impressed by their thoughtfulness overall. Many thanks to all of those who helped make this visit possible!