I had my first school visit for Rogue today, at a week-long summer program for college-bound students at Hackett Middle School in Albany. The 36 students have been reading the novel in class. They're up to Chapter 6 and will be finishing it on the bus to Boston tomorrow, where they have an overnight field trip. (Some are finished already and sworn to secrecy on the ending.)

In part because I lost my voice because of a cold at ALA and still haven't gotten it back completely, and in part because 90 minutes of talking to seventh and eighth graders does not make for a good program, I invited the students to become part of the novel through an activity in which they gave advice to Kiara. Before handing out the four scenarios, I asked the kids how many think Kiara "needs help." Every hand went up. I asked them if they ever go to the Internet for help the way she does. About half of them do go to places like Yahoo! Answers to find information, but none do so to learn how to make friends or get along with other people.