One School, One Cake

Posted on by scott

Can you identify this object?

Yes, it’s a cake. And if you look closely, you’ll realize that it’s a cake shaped like a copy of Uglies!

How did such a thing come to exist, you ask?

Well, early this year I got a call from a South Central High School in Indiana. They wanted to start a One School/One Book project, and they wanted to use Uglies as their guinea pig.

I said that was awesome (as I usually do to people who want to buy 500 copies of one of my books), and said I’d be willing to come for a visit as well.

So last Thursday Justine and I flew down to visit friends in Kentucky, then early on Friday morning crossed the river to Indiana.

Now it’s one thing to see what effect my books have on one person or a group of friends. But a whole school? That’s a different order of magnitude altogether.

The students had made Uglies games:

And art projects:

And even built hoverboards:

Okay, the hoverboards didn’t fly, but they were tricked-out in ways that made them feel more real than the hoverboards in Uglies. They had great personal touches, like band stickers and sports-team logos, and one Hello-Kitty color scheme. (Pink is the new hover, I guess.)

That’s how the whole day was: Cool stuff all over the walls, kids asking smart questions, all the results of a school-wide conversation about one book.

It’s a great idea, and no doubt took a lot of hard work. (And a grant from the Harrison County Community Foundation.) I hope that South Central keeps doing it in years to come, experimenting with all sort of books, and that other schools try out the idea as well.

It was really cool, and I feel honored to be chosen, and grateful to everyone who helped it come into being. (And thanks for Gwenda and Christopher for letting us crash.)

Plus, there was cake.

So here’s a question: If your school did a one-book project, what would you want everyone to read? And let’s focus on books other than mine, because obviously anyone reading this probably already likes me.

So what would be cool for a whole school to read? What book would most change the way everyone saw their high school?

I nominate Lois Lowry’s The Giver and S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders.

What about you guys?

119 thoughts on “One School, One Cake”

  1. Faith and the Electric Dogs by Patrick Jennings. An easy read (probably 3rd grade reading level) but great jumping off point for discussion. I’ve read it to everyone from about 3rd grade up to 10th grade and never had any complaints.

    Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher. Some of the same themes as Faith, but MUCH more advanced material. Plus, great discussion on where/why it’s been challenged.

  2. so like alot of you guys listed “twilight” by stephanie meyer ( did i spell that right ) so i got the book and read it but NO ONE mentioned that i would never stop thinking about it… then i had 2 order new moon from the library but all 17 books are checked out so they said it would take about a month to get it so after like alot of begging i got my parents 2 agree to take me 2morrow but now it is all i can think about and i think i might frealin pull out my hair. ( so i read all 498 pages of twilight in 3 days i did not sleep at all )

    im am officially going crazy…

  4. Alright, so it might not change my school, but I love the book Heir Apparent from Vivian Vande Velde.

  5. House of Stairs by William Sleator
    Galax-Arena by Gillian Rubenstein
    Jake, Reinvented by Gordon Korman
    The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

    Stupid spell check! All of the author’s last names have a little squiggly red line underneath them!

  7. simple as snow gregory galloway

    candy kevin brooks ( beware- prostitute action and smiling of peoples throats)

    Slant of Light ???????

    a theif in the house of memory ??????

    gothic! ten original dark tales by ten dark authors

  8. Whoahhhhhh.

    Im from Carmel, which is right above Indianapolis, where that school is.

    Im jealous. :O

    You should come to our school. Uglies is like everybodies favorite book here. ^^

  9. and apart from Uglies for the school wide thing, Id say Maximum Ride- James Patterson.

    I know somebody already said that but its a great series.

  10. well, most of the stuff you’ve mentioned, but heres ones you havent said;

    the lightning thief, by Rick Riordan
    Airborn, Skybreaker, Sunwing by Kenneth Oppel
    Lionboy by zizu corder
    Most of Gary Kilworths Welkin Weasel books.
    Charlie Higson’s Young Bond series
    Jason’s Gold, Down the Yukon and Downriver by Will Hobbs
    Worlds Fair 1992 by Robert Silverberg
    I robot, and the Caves of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
    Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
    The Medici Seal, by someone
    The city of Ember, by Someone else
    The Kin by Peter Dickinson
    the Hornblower series by CS Forester
    Pendragon Series, by DJ Machale
    Cherub series, by Robert Muchamore
    Mistmantle Chronicles, by MI mcAlister
    Jeeves and Wooster (series) by PG Wodehouse

    and several others that you guys have mentioned, or are by Scott.

    as you can tell, i like to read a lot

    (sorry for the long post)

  19. defibitely Twilight by stephenie meyer. its the best book EVER! i read it in under a day its so good.

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