On Monday April 28, St. Benedict students from Grade 7 and 8 as well the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) class were treated to a visit from Joanne Levy, the author of Small medium at large. This book is the author’s first published novel, and it was one of the titles included in this year’s list for the Red Maple Reading Program that was run at St. Benedict. Prior to her visit, several of the classes were able to read the novel in class in preparation for her visit.

In her presentation, Joanne Levy gave a brief introduction of herself and then outlined the journey from writing a book to having it published. The presentation included several interesting facts from her own experiences with writing. In the question period that followed, students eagerly posed a variety of questions about the writing process, the inspiration for this novel, and her previous unsuccessful novels. Following the presentation, Joanne visited each elementary class, and the ASD class, to distribute signed bookmarks to all the students and staff.

In the afternoon, Joanne visited Holy Cross and gave two presentations to the Grade 5 and 6 students. Although Small medium at large is written for an older audience, the Holy Cross students were interested to ask how the book came into being and what inspired her. However, the most popular topic for questions was her pets.