Middle School Students Attend Workshop

Dashner Featured In ‘Conversation’ Series

Dashner
Dashner

— Middle school students built part of the excitement for author James Dashner’s visit.

Dashner will speak at 10 a.m. today in the John Q. Hammons Center as part of the Rogers Public Library Foundation Conversation series. He spoke to a workshop Friday that, for the first time, included Rogers middle school students.

At A Glance

Foundation Scholarships

Grace Hill Memorial Scholarships of $500 were awarded by the Rogers Public Library Foundation during Friday’s workshop. The scholarships, which have been awarded for several years, were named this year to honor educator and library supporter Grace Hill, who died early this year.

About 40 high school students entered an essay with the theme of traveling back in time.

• First-place winner and scholarship recipient John T. McNeill III wrote “The Census from the Front Porch Rocker: August 9, 1860.” McNeill is a senior at Rogers Heritage High School.

• Second-place winner and scholarship recipient Aubrie Hanson wrote “Just Goal For It.” Hanson is a senior at Rogers High School.

• Third-place winner Cassandra Vennerbeck wrote “The Dawn of Time.” Vennerbeck is a senior at Heritage High School.

• Fourth-place winner Casey Parker wrote “If I Could Turn Back Time.” Parker is a sophomore at Bentonville High School.

• Fifth-place winner Anne Elise Crafton wrote “The Incident of the Red Floor.” Crafton is a junior at Providence Classical Christian Academy.

Source: Staff Report

Many of the students wrote essays or submitted artwork to get their seat at the workshop. Some built clues that will be included in today’s program, and others added effects to a video that will introduce Dashner.

Lucas Jones, a sixth-grader at Oakdale Middle School, helped write a clue and question for the program.

“It was hard to think of something that wasn’t too easy or too hard,” Lucas said.

“We got to work together to present somebody who made books that lots of people enjoy,” said Steve Ruan, a sixth-grader at Greer Lingle Middle School.

“It was cool to me because everybody was going to see it,” said Shane Allder, a sixth-grader at Lingle.

Shane said he was excited about Dashner’s visit and has read the “Maze Runner” series. As he got to the end of the first book, he couldn’t put it down.

“He can word stuff really good,” Shane said.

Dashner told the group he knew in high school he wanted to be an author, but he became an accountant instead. In a fit of inspiration, he wrote “Maze Runner” in a little more than three months. It was rejected more than 20 times before he rewrote it.

“Whatever you want to do in life, you can’t just quit when it gets hard,” Dashner told workshop attendees. “Don’t give up on your dreams.”

Visiting with people who read his books reminds him why he loves to read and write, he said after the workshop.

Dashner’s newest book, “Infinity Ring: A Mutiny in Time,” incorporates time travel, one of his favorite concepts.

Parts of history have gone wrong, names are spelled differently and Washington, D.C., isn’t the capital of the United States.

“Everything is just a little off kilter,” Dashner said.

Lacy Hazelbaker, an Oakdale sixth-grader, said she likes the characters she has seen in “Maze Runner.” The creatures in the book are scary but “really cool,” Lacy said.

“I’ve never read anything like it before,” she said.

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