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Shelley Pearsall Books, Author Biography, and Reading Level | Scholastic

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by Shelley Pearsall

Last summer, my novel The Seventh Most Important Thing went around the globe. It traveled in suitcases and backpacks to Israel, France, Iceland, and England. It sat on a beach. It became part of someone's wedding photo. It went to football practice.

Mayfield High School, a large suburban high school outside Cleveland, Ohio, wanted to try something different with their summer reading program last year. So they shelved the traditional list of high school summer classics in favor of a single, community-wide choice for all grade levels.

The school chose T he Seventh Most Important Thing, typically selected for sixth to ninth graders, because they wanted to encourage entire families to read, discuss-and yes, even vacation with-the book. They hoped to change the way the school community thought about assigned reading, from passive (and often reluctant) to active reading, from SparkNotes to real sparks.

In the novel, a teenager named Arthur Owens is dealing with the sudden loss of his father in a motorcycle accident. In anger, he throws a brick at a helpless trash picker known as the Junk Man. Ultimately, Arthur is sentenced to collect the "seven most important things," not only for his own redemption, but also for the Junk Man's secret and spectacular work of art.

The Seventh Most Important Thing touches on many themes-grief, loss, redemption, hope, healing, and the power of art. In other words, there is a lot to talk about. I believe this is one key in choosing a successful community-reads novel: it must touch on universal themes all of us face in our lives to facilitate discussion. I believe that is why this work of realistic fiction is being chosen for community reads.

From coaches to custodians to school secretaries-everybody read. In fact, I often judge the success of a school-wide reading program by one staff person in particular: the custodian.

I can't tell you how many times a custodian at a school has whispered to me, "You know, I read your book too." I consider them to be the "book whisperers" of all-school reads because they often motivate and push kids (and other staff members) to read. They frequently serve as the unofficial cheerleaders of the book.

Social media played a big role. Mayfield created a Twitter feed for posting photos with the book. It connected the school community over the summer and kept the conversation going.

One of my favorite parts of Mayfield High School's reading initiative happened during my visit at the start of the school year. Typically, an author visit means a couple of large assemblies and a small-group lunch with interested writers. However, over the course of three days at Mayfield, I met with a wide variety of groups, including aspiring student journalists, vo-ed nursing candidates, art students, and teachers. In one memorable interaction, a young man with autism shared his concept for a graphic novel with me. The underlying message of the three-day visit was that books and stories are for all of us.

So pack your suitcase and take your school-wide reading choice around the world next summer.

I'll see you there!

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Around the World with THE SEVENTH MOST IMPORTANT THING by Shelley Pearsall | Penguin Random House Common Reads

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by Shelley Pearsall Last summer, my novel The Seventh Most Important Thing went around the globe. It traveled in suitcases and backpacks to Israel, France, Iceland, and England. It sat on a beach. It became part of someone's wedding photo. It went to football practice.

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Audio Name Pronunciation with Shelley Pearsall Created by TeachingBooks.net

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"This middle-grade story must be shared with as many young readers as possible. The book would make for an excellent class read aloud, a book club selection, or to put in the individual hands of readers."

"A warm and gentle embrace of exceptional children, and the recognition they deserve." -

Parents, teachers, and librarians at home: I'm here to help you anytime! If you have questions about my books, teaching resources, or other requests, feel free to email me at . Note: you will need to type this address into your email as this is not an active link. Or use the . Here is some additional information for you:

Audiobooks: Things Seen From Above, The Seventh Most Important Thing, Jump into the Sky, Crooked River, and Trouble Don't Last are all available in audiobook format.

Copyright Information for Teachers: Here is current information from about how to do online read-alouds, etc. for your students.

Activities and Discussion Questions: Free downloadable teaching materials for my books can be found . Background material and visuals to support your reading can be found on my pages for each book. Check out the free Writing Workshop video below for your virtual classroom or library.

FREE Virtual Book Club Chats: available to small groups reading my books. Free and fee-based virtual book talks and writing workshops start September 1st. Use

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"This middle-grade story must be shared with as many young readers as possible. The book would make for an excellent class read aloud, a book club selection, or to put in the individual hands of readers." "A warm and gentle embrace of exceptional children, and the recognition they deserve."

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Hey everyone! I'm really excited to have Shelley Pearsall, author of The Seventh Most Important Thing (September 8th 2015, Knopf Books for Young Readers), here for an interview. First, here's more about the book:

It was a bitterly cold day when Arthur T. Owens grabbed a brick and hurled it at the trash picker. Arthur had his reasons, and the brick hit the Junk Man in the arm, not the head. But none of that matters to the judge-he is ready to send Arthur to juvie for the foreseeable future. Amazingly, it's the Junk Man himself who offers an alternative: 120 hours of community service . . . working for him.

Arthur is given a rickety shopping cart and a list of the Seven Most Important Things: glass bottles, foil, cardboard, pieces of wood, lightbulbs, coffee cans, and mirrors. He can't believe it-is he really supposed to rummage through people's trash? But it isn't long before Arthur realizes there's more to the Junk Man than meets the eye, and the "trash" he's collecting is being transformed into something more precious than anyone could imagine. . . .

Inspired by the work of American folk artist James Hampton.

Goodreads | Amazon | Kobo

And now here's the interview! Enjoy!

Question: Congratulations! Your novel, The Seventh Most Important Thing, will be out in the world soon! Have the last few months been crazy with last-minute prep, or is this the "calm before the storm" for you?
Answer: It is always a long wait for a new book to be published. To keep from going completely crazy, I usually start on another book project, so I'm about a hundred pages into writing a new novel right now.

Question: The Seventh Most Important Thing deals with the loss of a parent and what it means for those left behind, especially for a young child. It also deals with the idea that good things can come from dark, sad situations. What inspired you to write about these things? What do you hope your readers will take away from it?
Answer: The inspiration for this novel came from several different places-a work of art that I saw back in college, a middle school student I met at a writing workshop who was having a hard time dealing with grief, and some of my own experiences with loss. I hope readers take away the importance of looking beneath the surface-don't judge someone before you know his or her story, in other words. I also hope they see the power of art to help us understand and express our feelings.

Question: Can you explain the significance of the title and cover (which I love!) without spoilers? Maybe just a hint?
Answer: Arthur Owens, the main character in the story, must collect seven "important things" to fulfill his sentence for committing a crime, so the title was inspired by that idea. The jacket illustrates at least two of those seven things...but that's all I can tell you!

Question: Craziest thing you've had to Google for a WIP?
Answer: Flip-flops, the word "dude," TV dinners, baseball schedules for the Washington Senators (a 60's expansion team in D.C.), candy bar varieties...

Question: Any fun plans for release day? What do you think you'll do the first time you see your book in stores?
Answer: I always go out for a dinner with my family on the release day to celebrate. A week later, I have a bigger party, called a "launch party," at a local library to celebrate with readers and friends-there is usually a cake, free giveaways, and a short talk (by me). Mostly, the party is a great way to thank everyone involved in the book journey. Seeing my book in stores is always a little scary-kind of like seeing someone you know, when you aren't expecting it, and suddenly you can't think of what to say or do!

~*~*~*~

About the Author:

A former teacher and museum historian, SHELLEY PEARSALL is now a full-time writer. Her first novel, Trouble Don't Last, won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction.

Website

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Author Spotlight: The Seventh Most Important Thing by Shelley Pearsall (Interview)

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Hey everyone! I'm really excited to have Shelley Pearsall, author of The Seventh Most Important Thing (September 8th 2015, Knopf Books for Young Readers), here for an interview. First, here's more about the book: It was a bitterly cold day when Arthur T. Owens grabbed a brick and hurled it at the trash picker.

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After the sun went down and the streetlights woke up, God visited James Hampton. Not just once, but often. Moses appeared to him in 1931, the Virgin Mary in 1946, and then Adam on the day of Truman's inauguration in 1949. These holy visitations came for years in the late hours of the night, when Hampton had finished his shift at the General Services Administration.

Born in 1909 in the Midlands of South Carolina, Hampton served in the Pacific during the Second World War, and then worked as a janitor in the nation's capital until he died. Most nights, instead of going home to his room at a boarding house, Hampton went to a brick garage that he rented for 50 dollars a month. It was there, in that unheated space about a mile from the White House, that the self-proclaimed "Director of Special Projects for the State of Eternity" prepared for the Second Coming of Christ.

Harry Lowe, then assistant director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, told the Washington Post that walking into the garage "was like opening Tut's tomb."

It took Michelangelo only four years to paint the Sistine Chapel, but Hampton spent more than 14 building what he would eventually call " The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly." The ebullient, elaborate sculpture is made from aluminum foil and light bulbs, cardboard boxes and coffee cans, jelly jars and wood scraps. Hampton scavenged some materials from the trash bins of the G.S.A. and salvaged others from around the city, hauling discarded furniture in a child's wagon and collecting foil anywhere he could, including the wine bottles and cigarette packs of strangers.

When the night was as deep as a well, Hampton would go to the garage to glue, staple, tape, and tack his treasures together. A few 500-watt bulbs hung from the ceiling, bringing light to the darkness of his workspace, and, piece-by-piece, the 180 objects of Hampton's masterpiece came to occupy almost 300 square feet. The center throne itself is seven-feet tall, its foundation an old armchair with a red cushion. Flanking it are dozens of ambos and altars, crowns, lecterns, tablets, and winged pulpits-like Isaiah's vision of the Lord enthroned, even the wings have wings.

AFTER HAMPTON'S DEATH FROM stomach cancer in November of 1964, his landlord, a pawnbroker named Meyer Wertlieb, discovered the sculpture and some written manuscripts while clearing out the garage. On one wall was a blackboard with chalked plans and sketches; on another wall, a bulletin board with a verse from Proverbs: "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Hampton's sister came up from South Carolina to settle his estate, but expressed no interest in the "Throne," so Wertlieb contacted local newspapers. He also tried renting out the space to a new tenant.

A sculptor named Ed Kelly answered Wertlieb's advertisement and, astounded by what he saw in the garage, contacted other artists and collectors. Because this was during the Corcoran Gallery of Art's Biennial, the likes of Leo Castelli and Robert Rauschenberg came to see the sculpture in situ. Harry Lowe, then assistant director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, told the Washington Post that walking into the garage "was like opening Tut's tomb."

Hampton's work exists in that ambiguous category of outsider art, a comfortable term for collectors and curators, but an uncomfortable one for many who believe these artists are either deranged or devout.

It was Lowe who paid Hampton's outstanding rent, taking possession of the "Throne" for the Smithsonian, where it has been on display ever since except for a few weeks in 2012 when it was removed for cleaning. The "Throne" sits in an artificial apse in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a recessed niche meant to look like something you'd find in a church. There's a bench that stands like a pew in front of it, inviting visitors to sit and stare, but it's antiseptic, like listening to a bell without its clapper, partly, of course, because James Hampton never thought of himself as an artist.

"The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly" wasn't a work of symbolism, but a literal readying for the Second Coming. Hampton's work exists in that ambiguous category of outsider art, a comfortable term for collectors and curators, but an uncomfortable one for many who believe these artists are either deranged or devout. What little we know about Hampton's sense of vocation is known only through his writings, most of which are written in a private language.

A BOUND NOTEBOOK AND a clipboard of lined, loose-leaf paper were found in the garage and while there are some recognizably English words, the pages are mostly filled with symbols that swirl like pinwheels, numerals that hang like musical notes, triangles and dots, arrows and circles. The assumption is that Hampton's language reads like English-from top to bottom, moving from left to right-but cryptanalysts have been unable to translate it.

Like the Rohonc Codex and the Voynich Manuscript, Hamptonese has been studied but never solved. One 2005 study published by Mark Stamp, a professor of computer science at San Jose State University, tried using Markov models to analyze Hampton's private language. Stamp and one of his undergraduate students, Ethan Le, spent hours transcribing Hampton's writings into a computer-friendly form. They identified 42 distinct symbols from more than 29,000 characters, and then ran entropy calculations on their transcription. Hampton's language had entropy levels "comparable" to that of English, meaning its non-randomness suggested it is not nonsense speech (though not necessarily a language either).

One of the most interesting conclusions that Stamp offers is the "very real possibility that in spite of its language-like appearance, Hamptonese is simply the written equivalent of 'speaking in tongues.'"

After that, Stamp used a common tool in statistical modeling on Hampton's writing. Hidden Markov models were created in the 1960s by the Defense Department, and since they were declassified in the '70s, they have been used for medical imaging, genomic analysis, and language-related problems like speech recognition. These algorithms are used to detect patterns in spoken and written speech, so the letters and phonetics of English can be easily compared to those of Hampotonese. The first hidden Markov model analysis ruled out a simple substitution cipher whereby each symbol of Hamptonese would correspond to a letter of the English alphabet, but the second was less conclusive.

One of the most interesting conclusions that Stamp offers in his 2005 paper is the "very real possibility that in spite of its language-like appearance, Hamptonese is simply the written equivalent of 'speaking in tongues.'" That would mean that while Hampton's writing is consistent with a genuine language, it still might never be translated. All those pages, all those revelations and visions: It's possible that none of them will ever be decoded.

NOT EVERYTHING HAMPTON WROTE, though, is in Hamptonese. Above the "Throne," in shiny silver, are the words "FEAR NOT." That phrase, spoken first by God to Abraham, but then repeated often by Christ in the New Testament, is the core of Hampton's work. To the left of those words are the prophets and references to the Hebrew Bible; to the right, the apostles and the New Testament. That arrangement was settled years ago after Hampton's "Throne" attracted the attention of evolutionary theorist Stephen Jay Gould.

In his book Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time (1987), Gould explains how Hampton's work inspired his own sense of the repetition and reinvention of history. Gould saw Hampton's "Throne" while on a coffee break at a conference, but noticed an irregularity. He asked a curator why the Old Testament appeared on the right and the New Testament on the left, only to learn that it had been installed incorrectly.

The two sides were reversed, and Hampton's work was righted by the time a writer named Denis Johnson saw it. Johnson drove from Key West to South Carolina, and then from Hampton's hometown to Washington to see the "Throne" in the Smithsonian. He confesses in his poem about the pilgrimage:

I'm glad The Throne exists:

My days are better for it, and I feel

Something that makes me know my life is real

To think he died unknown and without a friend,

But this feeling isn't sorrow. I was his friend

As I looked at and was looked at by the rushing-together parts

Of the vision of someone who was probably insane

The assumption that Hampton was insane, based either on the radical simplicity of his materials or the continued secrecy of his language, might be the most comfortable way of explaining his life and work, but it is also the most callow. Perhaps we can live with the possibility that a man worked for years to astonish the rest of us, not because he was crazed, but because he was truly inspired.

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Cracking the Code of James Hampton's Private Language

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After the sun went down and the streetlights woke up, God visited James Hampton. Not just once, but often. Moses appeared to him in 1931, the Virgin Mary in 1946, and then Adam on the day of Truman's inauguration in 1949.

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Additional facts concerning Hampton's life are scarce. He never married, lived alone in a small apartment in a row house in northwest Washington, and was described as a small, bespectacled, soft-spoken recluse with few friends. James Hampton was totally dedicated to his "vision", a "vision" that almost defies artistic classification yet produced an outstanding example of religious sculpture.

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One kid. One crime. One chance to make things right.
The story of how a random act of violence brings together an angry, thirteen year old boy and a reclusive "Junk Man" in his neighborhood. When the teenager is sentenced to work for the trash picker he injured, he begins to unravel the Junk Man's surprising secrets. Readers will be uplifted by this powerful tale of friendship, loss, art, and redemption. Can art transform lives? Find out.
2016 ALA Notable Children's Book Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year ILA Teachers' Choice Bank Street Best Book, Outstanding Merit
Booklist Top 10 Historical Fiction 2016

2016 Ohioana Book Award Winner

New York Public Library Top 100

Junior Library Guild selection

Capitol Choice (D.C.) Noteworthy Book

State Book Award nominee in Vermont, Missouri (MASL), Indiana, Maine, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Rhode Island, Kansas, Michigan, Connecticut, Arkansas, Arizona and Nebraska.

"Luminescent..." Kirkus Reviews, starred

"A moving exploration of how there is often so much more than meets the eye." Booklist, starred

"Shelley Pearsall tells a sumptuously layered tale of transformation." School Library Journal feature, starred
Five Quick Classroom Ideas
1. Build a unique sculpture from discarded items and choose a special word or phrase for the top.

2. Write a short narrative about: a character who develops wings, the theme of FEAR NOT, or trash turned to treasure. Ideas from Harmon MS, OH.

3. Paint your own "cardboard quotes" and display. Idea from Berner MS, NY.

4. Give each student seven paper towel rings to display seven objects, pictures, or drawings that symbolize "important things" in their lives. Idea from Bigelow MS, MA.

5. Create Vision Boards sharing your interests, thoughts, quotes, and visions for your future. Idea from Morton Grove Public Library, IL.

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The Seventh Most Important Thing - SHELLEY PEARSALL Official Website - Children's Book Author

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(Official site) Provides information on Shelley's books and author visits. Includes resources for teachers, librarians, and kids.

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The Seventh Most Important Thing | Kidsreads

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It was a bitterly cold day when Arthur T. Owens grabbed a brick and hurled it at the trash picker. Arthur had his reasons, and the brick hit the Junk Man in the arm, not the head. But none of that matters to the judge --- he is ready to send Arthur to juvie for the foreseeable future.