U.S. National Ambassador for young people's literature shares love of stories in Salina

New York Times Bestselling Author Jason Reynolds made a stop at Southeast of Saline Tuesday for a conversation with students at the school.

Reynolds is the U.S. national ambassador for young people’s literature. The Library of Congress has appointed him to the role for a third consecutive year.

As national ambassador, Reynolds said he doesn’t just want to connect students with a love for reading but share how stories are the greatest gift of humanity – that every story matters.

SES applied through the Library of Congress website to be a potential stop on his tour of schools this year. Librarian Shauna Henry said she was surprised and honored when they were picked.

“It’s just amazing that the kids are getting to hear from him,” Henry said. “He brings a totally new perspective than what some kids may have here. There is a lot to learn from his stories."

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The importance of stories

Henry introduced Reynolds to the crowd of 5th and 7-12 grades on Tuesday before she and two seniors Nakari Morrical-Palmer and Greyson Pembleton asked him questions about his writing career, what he likes about his ambassador job, and a few inquiries about food preferences.

It was a laid-back assembly, with plenty of jokes from Reynolds and laughs from students who listened intently to what he had to say.

Beyond the fact that he no longer eats meat, and has not had a piece of pizza in more than 10 years, he shared with students some motivations behind his work.

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"Everybody gets to kind of build their own platform with this position, and usually the platform is similar to what (Henry) described, that I travel around and encourage you all to read and write," Reynolds said. "But I just feel like, you know, that doesn't ever really work."

Reynolds said he remembers when he was a student he didn't necessarily like to read. He actually decided he enjoyed writing in high school and began to enjoy reading later in life.

Inspired by this fact, his platform is really a message to others that stories matter, especially personal ones.

"So my platform isn't really to encourage people to read and write — I mean, it is sort of — but its more like through the back door," Reynolds said.

"For me it's like 'look, I recognize that the one thing that nobody ever told me when I was a kid, was that the story I had inside of myself, the one about my own life, my own family, my own community, my fears, my own struggles, my feelings, the things I wanted, my dreams — nobody ever asked me to tell that story."

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Caring for the next generation

Reynolds answered several questions from Pembleton and Morrical-Palmer, as well as a few from students in the crowd.

Eventually, Pembleton asked "What is your inspiration for writing?"

"My inspiration, for the most part, is just thinking about young people," Reynolds said. "It's such a cheesy thing to say, but it's true. I think you are the most brilliant generation to ever live; I just don't think y'all know that yet. I think that's what drives me all the time is like 'how can I figure out a way to let them know?'"

Having spent a lot of time around young people Reynolds said he understands their humor.

"I love the fact that everything is funny, and I love the fact that you all care more about fairness than almost every generation before you," Reynolds said. "I love that at the core of who you really are is you really want things to be better."

He is inspired by his mom, too, he said, as someone he can always go to and enjoy being around. She is an essential part of his writing routine, visiting her is always a recharge of love and inspiration.

Bringing people together

Another part of Reynolds' platform is focusing on outreach to smaller schools and towns, he said. Growing up he was used to big cities, but now he recognizes there are students beyond those areas with their own stories to tell.

"So helping you all feel valued and recognizing that there are people in places we may not know that have a story as well, is important to me," Reynolds said.

Reynolds pointed out that there are valuable reasons in place for language rules students learn in school like grammar and punctuation, but that there are always ways to bend such things for creativity.

"My goal is to make sure that you all understand expression is important," Reynolds said. "Right, we call it language arts, that's what we say we teach in school... I think sometimes we teach the language part and we don't teach the art part."

Each student in attendance received a signed copy of one of Reynolds' books.

This article originally appeared on Salina Journal: Author Jason Reynolds shares love for stories with Southeast of Saline