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"I’d like to share with you some actual questions actual teenagers have actually asked about my new book, and I swear these are true and can produce witnesses if necessary.
“Can you talk about why Quentin survives his encounter with the land whale while Captain Ahab doesn’t survive his encounter with Moby Dick?”
“Is Margo’s hair always in her face because no one is seeing her?”
“Are we really able to reinvent ourselves like Dr. Jefferson Jefferson or are we just boats getting borne back ceaselessly into the past like they say in Gatsby?”
Real questions. Real teenagers. There were hundreds more. And of course there were silly questions, too—do you think margo or lacey is hotter; if you could be any kind of cheese, what kind of cheese would you be? (To the latter, I answered Nicholas Sparks.) Silly questions are great, too. But again and again, I met teenagers who were reading thoughtfully and critically, and I believe that as writers and educators, we have a shared responsibility to give teenagers every opportunity to encounter everything that books can do."