On Friday, December 6, Ken Cadow, author of Gather, visited WUHSMS thanks to Vermont Humanities! In addition to being a National Book Award Finalist last year, Gather is the Vermont Reads books for 2024 and hundreds of our students have read it. Ken Cadow's author talk was for most the culminating activity of their study of Ian's life in Vermont with his dog named Gather. The themes in this coming of age story really resonated with our students and they had the opportunity to ask their questions of the author. Nine student panelists sat on stage with the author and they asked questions students in grades 9-12 wrote in their English classes.
One student panelist, Lucia Beckwith, who was nominated by her teacher Ms. Perkins, had the opportunity to ask her own question. She asked, "How did you create the strong bond between Ian and the land and what inspired you to write about it?" Ken Cadow replied that, "Walking is my way of dealing with stuff. The woods became my therapist." He explained that after losing several siblings that walking in the woods was a way to have a connection to his relatives. Sam Gomes, another student panelist nominated by her teacher Mr. Clifford, had the chance to ask a couple of her own questions too. She asked, "Why did you choose to add addiction as the conflict in this story?" Cadow replied by saying, "Because it is so real and I know so many students who have addiction in their families." Sam followed up with, "Why did you choose to have Ian's mom die?" Cadow acknowledged that "it was a really hard question." He explained that he "...needed it for the story to work." And that it was "...an homage to the strong bond between mother and son."
Everyone learned so much about Ken's life, work and his writing process. He was very generous with his time and so thoughtful with his answers. He also gave us something to look forward to as he shared that he is planning to write another coming-of-age story.
In addition to reading the book Gather, students also did written responses that included making personal connections to the story through quotes, objects and symbols. Anna Robidoux, a student in Ms. Hagge's class closed her paragraph with, "In our world today, it is worth considering that objects, even “stupid” ones, can hold so much value to us. We need to be more open-minded as people and find people who we can be ourselves around, good people to look up to. If there is one takeaway from this book, it’s that Ian doesn’t tolerate drama or bad people. He removes himself from toxic situations even if it means he is all alone. But Ian always had people who cared for him even if they aren’t family, and I think we all tend to forget that. There is always someone who cares for you, you are never truly alone." Paige Stone, one of the student panelists, ended the Q&A by reading Anna Robidoux's very touching words to the audience.
After the presentation, the ninth grade students participated in an afternoon of activities inspired by the book including forest exploration, making dog beds and cat scratchers to be donated to Lucy McKenzie Humane Society, baking dog treats and visiting with Baxter the therapy dog in the library.
Thank you to everyone who helped make this event such a success!
