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Author Sonya Sones shares poetry, books, stories with secondary students
March 17, 2009
Popular
young-adult author, Sonya Sones, visited with Mohonasen
High School and Draper Middle School students on Tuesday, March 17. Sones is known for writing free-verse novels,
such as "What My Mother Doesn't Know" and "One of Those
Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies."
"I wasn't always a young-adult author," Sones told students. "When I started out I was just a young adult."
She talked about learning to make animated films at the age of 17 and how that led to a job at Harvard, and ultimately, a job in Hollywood. It was in California that she met her husband, a head writer for the popular TV show "Saved by the Bell." After they were married, and the couple had their first child, Sones started designing her own baby clothes. Not long after that, she decided she wanted to write and illustrate books for children.
Her first book was a flop, so she decided to start taking writing classes at nearby UCLA. She talked about a difficult professor who was known for giving a lot of homework and making adults cry. In was in this class that Sones really started to explore her passion, and her talent, for writing in verse.
When she wrote a poem about her sister having to go into a mental hospital, her teacher encouraged her to continue on that path. Everyone has someone in their family that is throwing the rest of the family off kilter, the teacher told Sones, and reading poems like hers would make them feel less alone.
That
book turned into her first book, "Stop Pretending: What Happened
When My Big Sister Went Crazy." The book received
numerous awards and set Sones on her way to becoming a very
popular author for young adults.
For her next book, Sones said she knew she wanted to write about all the firsts that girls go through in life. That idea turned into, "What My Mother Doesn't Know."
Sones said that while her first book was biographical, the rest of her books are not. However, she pointed out that she has used people she's encountered in her lifetime and feelings she has felt over the years in her books.
In her third book, "One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies," Sones said she wanted to talk about culture shock, grief and things not being as they are.
Sones' most recent book, "What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know," is the sequel to "What My Mother Doesn't Know." However, in this book, the story is told through the eyes of a boy.
As she discussed each book for the Mohonasen students, Sones read excerpts from them. However, for "What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know," she asked for a male volunteer to do the readings. For this honor, she selected Mr. Kristofer Rose, an English language arts teacher from Draper.
Sones ended her presentation by answering questions from the students in the audience and signing books. She then held a poetry workshop in the high school library.
