With a new book release, a major children’s author is set to visit a Wichita school

Earlier this month, Mead Middle School librarian Christy Goentzel followed her author spotlight lesson on bestselling and award-winning children’s author and poet Kwame Alexander with a question.

“If he walked through the door right now, what question would you ask him?”

As the students pondered what they might ask the author whose books have won Newbery, Caldecott and other awards, Goentzel decided to answer the question herself.

“Well, I’d ask him, ‘What kind of hip-hop music do you like to listen to before you do school visits and book signings,’ when he comes here Sept. 28,” she told the students.

“There were some kids who literally, their jaws dropped. And there were lots of gasps” when the students realized the news she was breaking to them, said Goentzel. She’d picked up the tidbit about him listening to music from an interview she’d shown them during the lessons.

Yes, Mead middle schoolers, a major American author who makes his home in London is coming to your school on Wednesday before he does a public event at 6 that night at the Crown Uptown Theatre.

That’s the day after the first book in his new trilogy, “The Door of No Return,” is released. And each of the more than 530 students at the school will get a signed copy of the new book as part of his visit.

“I’ve been in the district a long time, and I’ve never had an in-person author visit, so it’s really a big deal,” Goentzel said.

Alexander’s visit is part of the Authors in School program, created in 2018 by Watermark Books together with the Wichita school district and the Wichita Community Foundation. Through the program, students in a USD 259 Title I school get to not only meet an author but also get a signed book. Title I schools have higher numbers of financially challenged students.

Past authors have included Nick Bruel, author of the “Bad Kitty” series; Jeff Kinney, creator of the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series; and Varian Johnson, author of “Playing the Cards You’re Dealt” and “The Parker Inheritance.”

Alexander’s visit will be the program’s highest-profile author to date, according to Watermark owner Sarah Bagby and Melissa Fitzgerald, a former Scholastic Books representative who is the independent bookstore’s children’s coordinator.

After Bagby read an advance copy of “The Door of No Return,” a novel-in-verse inspired by the history of the slave trade in Africa, she was determined to bring Alexander to Wichita to participate in both the Authors in Schools program and one of the store’s many author events.

“It’s such a powerful book and we want to make sure we share him with as much of Wichita as we can,” Bagby said.

That’s why instead of limiting the school visit to just one or two grades like past authors, Alexander’s visit will be shared with all three grades at Mead, which is near Mount Vernon and Hillside.

For health and safety reasons, two-thirds of the students will be in the auditorium where Alexander will speak while the remaining students will watch his presentation from their classrooms via livestreaming.

Capacity for the evening event at the Crown Uptown Theatre is being limited to approximately 300 seats for the same reasons. Tickets for the event come with a copy of the book, but buyers have the option of donating the book for the Mead visit. Masks will be required for those who get in line to have Alexander sign their book at the Crown event.

Suitable for ages 10 and older, “The Door of No Return” is a slave narrative told from the perspective of 11-year-old Kofi Offin who lives in a part of West Africa now known as Ghana. Today, at least two historical sites in Africa where the slave trade was conducted — Goree Island off the coast of Senegal and the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana — have what is called a Door of No Return, a door symbolizing the captured individuals’ departure from the lives they once knew.

As the first installment of the trilogy, the book is about Kofi’s life at school and play and the events happening around him in 1860 before he is captured by a rival village in retaliation for the death of one of their youth and he is taken to a trading center. Kofi is still at sea at the end of the first book.

Some students at Mead Middle School were already familiar with Alexander’s works before Goentzel’s lessons earlier this month — he had been one of three major Black authors featured during Black History Month this past February at the school, Goentzel said.

As she recently prepared the students for Alexander’s visit, Goentzel showed book trailers and interviews he’s done and read from his books. The Mead library has about 10 of Alexander’s titles.

When Goentzel was talking about Alexander’s books, some kids seemed overwhelmed at the idea of reading a book with a few hundred pages.

“But I opened them up and showed them he writes poetry, so you’re not reading full pages of text. Then they became much more like ‘oh, this is something I can do,’” Goentzel recalled.

Some like that his previous books include a sports theme. His “Crossover” trilogy features two books about basketball and one about soccer. The books all deal with family relationships.

His new book will be used as part of a novel studies class at Mead.

The Authors in School program relies primarily on donations, said Bagby and Fitzgerald. Customers can also round up purchases at Watermark to donate to the fund. Partnering schools contribute $3 per book.

Past author events have cost an average of $3,000 as about 200 books are usually supplied at each visit. The Alexander visit is costing more because of its school-wide reach, rather than just one grade.

Alexander’s presentation at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 28, in the Crown Uptown Theatre is co-presented by Watermark Books and The Kansas African American Museum. To buy tickets, visit watermarkbooks.com. A donation link for the Authors in Schools program can also be found on the website.