“The truth is, I wouldn’t be a writer if I hadn’t first been a teacher,” says Jared Reck, local educator and author of the newly released book Donuts and Other Proclamations of Love. Jared will discuss the novel via Zoom at 2:00 p.m. Tuesday, August 3. The virtual author visit is part of this year’s “Tails and Tales” SummerQuest program. The event is free to attend and is geared to teens, however, interested adults are welcome to attend. Sign up here!
About the Book
Just released in June, Donuts and Other Proclamations of Love is a humorous and at times heartbreaking story about food trucks, festivals, and first loves. The novel has been chosen as a Junior Library Guild selection and will be sold in translation in Germany. Teen attendees are invited to pick up a complimentary copy of the book at their local library while supplies last.
Youth Empowerment Summit
Jared previously spoke at York County Libraries as the featured author at the 2018 Youth Empowerment Summit. The event highlighted his first novel A Short History of the Girl Next Door which has since been sold in translation in Turkey, the Czech Republic and France. The novel was also picked as a Junior Library Guild selection and a 2018 Carolyn W. Field Honor Book by the Pennsylvania Library Association.
Classroom Learning
“In my classroom is where I fell in love with YA lit, devouring Crutcher and Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green and Sara Zarr and A.S. King, right alongside my students. And it was with these same students that I learned how published writers write, soaking in the lessons of Nancie Atwell’s Writing Workshop and trying them out with my students,” says Jared. “If I hadn’t spent those years playing with memoir and poetry and short fiction in front of my students, I’d have never even considered attempting a novel.”
About Jared Reck
Jared teaches eighth grade language arts in the Spring Grove Area School District and is a professor at McDaniel College. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Clemson University and a master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Shippensburg University. He has also completed graduate course work in McDaniel College’s Writing for Children and Young Adults Program. The author resides in Hanover with his wife and two daughters.