Kelly Going visit

Kelly Going came to our college today to discuss her books. She was fantastic. She read some of her material that she has written along with telling us her story. She started off not wanting to be a writer but she started working for a publishing company and things fell into place after a few years. She was very nice and personable. She seemed very interested in the teaching aspect of books, and what and how to use books in the classroom. I liked how she was down to earth and thanked us for letting her come. I enjoyed hearing her story about how she fell into this career.

She is also from this area which I thought was cool. . Her first novel was named a Michael L. Printz Honor Book by the American Library Association in 2004. Her books have won many honors and awards. 

• Booksense picks, 
• Scholastic Book Club choices, 
• Junior Library Guild selections, .

 They have been featured by Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Kirkus, and Children's Book Council as Best Books of the Year. Her first novel, Fat Kid Rules the World was chosen as one of the Best Books of the Past Decade in 2005 by the Young Adult Library Services Association. Adapted into an independent film, it was named Audience Award winner at the SXSW Film Festival in 2012. This book however was very controversial among many people and was even banned in some libraries. You can follow her on her blog !!


She began writing novels in college and has since published novels for young adults and middle grade readers, a picture book, and a reference book titled Writing and Selling the YA Novel published by Writer's Digest. She has also written short stories for several anthologies and currently has multiple books under contract. Her work has been published in Germany, Japan, South Korea, Italy, and the UK.

She brought some of her books for us to buy at a discounted rate and signed them for us. She is truly an inspiration. 

 These are the ones I bought !








All of these pictures and videos can be found on her website
I just finished reading the book Saint Iggy. I think it would be really good for a middle school / high school student to read. It talks a lot about drugs and how his friend does them and is into trouble with a drug dealer which students might be able to relate toI also related to it since my parents did drugs while I was in high school, and Iggy's parents were also both drug addicts. Its a hard life but if you want to get out of it then you have to take steps in the right direction which he tries to do. I really enjoyed reading this!!

Going, K. (2003). Fat kid rules the world. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
Going, K. (2005). The liberation of Gabriel King. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
Going, K. (2006). Saint Iggy. Orlando: Harcourt.