By Taha Hague, Year 9, Whalley Range High School
Last Thursday, at Whalley Range High School, we were greeted by an incredible author, L.A. Weatherly! The author of the best-selling Angel series came to stop by, to talk to us about her new book: Broken Sky, to a group of Year 7s and to the Creative Writing Club.
The author began with talking about the plot of the book and what inspired her to write the story. The book is set in the 1940s in America and is a breath taking first book of the trilogy. Central character, Amity, is in a ‘perfect’ world where peace and harmony rule and where war is illegal. Everything is not what it seems and when Amity wants to help people, in keeping name of her father, she discovers that nothing is perfect. In a world so broken, who can Amity trust? Find out by reading Lee’s first book which is available for purchase and be tempted to read all the books in the ‘Broken’ trilogy.
She later explained how the thought came to her about the concept of this fantastic story. She said:
"I was out one night, with my husband, and he was discussing a few things with me. I was completely zoned out and an idea immediately popped into my head! I had to tell someone and because my husband was sitting opposite me, I told him! He’s used to these kind of things, living with an author who constantly blurts out ideas and shares them, he has no problem. So I sat there talking about these brilliant ideas and what I could do with them!”
Later, she read out a snippet from her new book which grabbed the attention of the audience and made us engage immediately. Personally, I thought it was quite depressing but she assured us that throughout the book, it wasn’t entirely miserable and gloomy! She showed us a few impressive front covers of the book and how the front cover is now from what it used to be. Did you know that the original title of Broken Sky was Firegirl?
At the end of the author’s visit, she announced the prize winners for a blog that a few year 9s wrote at last year’s Manchester Children's Book Festival. Zainab Imran, won the overall prize with a massive £100 voucher. Myself, and my two friends (Areeba Ahmed and Atiya Mahboob) won runners up, with a £20 voucher each and we were all welcomed on stage by the author. Can I just say, that I SPOKE to her! She is such a genuinely wonderful person who gave each of us delightful advice that we will all carry with us into the future.
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