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. Just found your blog – and so glad I did. I’ve loved your books and recommend them all the time to students. Thanks for taking time to blog. I love it!

  2. I’d pick Speak, or something weirder, like V for Vendetta. One book I’d choose is Death gets a timeout, which is great.
    In case anyone finds a book called ‘river Song’ Don’t read it, it sucks. Completely and utterly. Try reading Flowers for Algernon, Ishmeal, Of mice and men, 1984, or A brave new world instead

  3. Yeah. ‘Speak’ it really good. I am glad that we have to read ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ Its reall great, na dit teaches alot also. Gary Paulson is also a very amazing author. I know that if I ever got lost in the wilderness, I would survive(for awhile at least). So i also reccomend ‘The Hatchet’ and ‘The River.’

  4. Yes! the Giver!
    It’s such a simple book that everyone can read. And yet it has a multitude of themes that everybody try to figure out in life. That is the type of book that we should read in our English classes. It’s a book that everybody can’t help but express an opinion about.

  5. Happy Halloween to all Westerfeld fans!!!

    Right now I’m in a house that is just abotu to explode if there’s anymore Midnighters! We’ve got a polymath (Me!!!), mindcaster, flame-bringer and daylgihter (*other three shun*). Our acrobat couldn’t be here but she’ll have fun explaining what she is without a group of people to help make it make sense!

  7. Happy Halloween! I didn’t get to go to any parties this year because I got sick. That means I didn’t get to show off my peep/zombie costume. It was saddening and tragic…..

  8. What about Redwall by Brian Jacques? Cute on the surface, but exactly how that many different cultures all survive together makes for an interesting idea.

  10. I didn’t get stuck in a long midnight (yeah, I’m totally secretly a Midnighter), but I got some rude kids at my door. (I got stuck with candy-duty because my mom is sick. Oh well, I finished a book.)I said to one girl “Have a good Hallowees!” and she ran away after saying that she would. How rude. Had she ever heard the words “You, too.” spoken? I think not. A boy from my school showed up and scrutinized the candy wrappers. Anyway, Happy *belated* Halloween, all of ya who celebrate it!!

  11. one good book?
    i would agree with maximum ride
    or maybe the alex rider series for all those cool gadgets

  12. ok we HAD to read the giver and outsiders in seventh grade.
    yours is MUCH better.
    i actually was thinking of telling my teachers about it to use for future years.

  14. since I’m older and don’t know the new YA classics (except for Scott’s), I’d have to go old-school awesome and suggest Farenheit 451 and Ender’s Game. if non-science fiction is needed, The Outsiders and Catcher in the Rye are obvious good choices.

  16. Really? I stongly HATED Farenheit 451, i guess i just dont like Ray BRadbury very much (I didn’t like the Martian Chronicles either).

  17. Well, Outsiders and The Giver would be phenomonal, but I would have to suggest The da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, though that may cause contreversy, so perhaps Digital Fortress, also by Brown. For more of a girlish book, it would be the Mediator books by Meg Cabot, and for just good reading, The Young Wizards books by Diane Duane.

  20. I would say: Speak, and Feeling Sorry For Celia. Whats creepy is that I just read your post today, and I finished the Outsiders yesterday. And that book was amazing!

  21. A few people have said Speak and I think that Speak, Go Ask Alice and It Happened to Nancy are all books every teenager should read and therefore would be appropraite for this program. Coinidently I saw the movie Speak today and if you’ve read the book SEE IT!!!

  22. if i had to choose, i’d want the whole school to read pay it forward by Cathline Ryan Hyde, because the young boy my age is channging the world by one plan.

  24. that is one awsome cake!

    right..i would probably nominate The Giver. Actually, my whole school had to read The Giver. Of course, being my school, they wouldnt let us do anything fun with it.

  25. i love the cake!
    hmm, i would have to say any books by sarah dessen, especially just listen and the truth about forever. Also..sabriel by garth nix.
    i read the giver in grade 7, and the outsiders last year at school. we had an outsiders day where everyone dressed up as greasers and socs, which was awesome.

  26. If we could get past the censorship groups, Nailed by Patrick Jones and a new author from Spokane, Washington, Michael Harmon has a book out called Skate. Nancy Werlin’s The Rules of Survival. Infact, you could tie all of them together.

  27. the perks of being a wallflower by stephen chbosky. it might make people in a high school think twice about their friends and relationships, not to mention their parents.

  28. There are so many, but for high school I’d say…
    What Happened to Lani Garver? by Carol Plum-Ucci,
    how i live now, by Meg Rosoff
    The Beast, by Walter Dean Myers
    Catalyst, the “other” one by Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak) that doesn’t get talked about as much…and, finally,
    The Noughts and Crosses series!!! (I read all three of these in a weekend, couldn’t put them down)
    although these might have some controversial themes that schools wouldn’t like… *sigh*

  29. I would recommend Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden. It is the first of a seven-book series, but it really brings to light questions of human capacity for good and evil. My personal favorite was the third book because it was disturbing, everyone should at least read the first one.

  30. Yeah, Sarah Dessen books are good, (Truth About Forever, Just Listen, This Lullaby, Keeping the Moon) but you couldn’t really use them in school, too girly. The same goes for Twilight/New Moon, Meg Cabot(good books), the Bloody Jack series(at least the 1st one wasn’t too girly) and Pirates! are sort of in between, good books and not too girly(okay, just realized that Pirates! is a little girly), but boys still might not want to read them. How I Live Now would definitly not be allowed in schools, I’m surprised it’s not being banned all over.

    The Giver is okay, didn’t like it that much, I liked “Gathering Blue” much better, it’s sort of a sequel/prequel to Giver, I could never figure out which.
    Books that both boys and girls would like for schools:
    Airborn/Skybreaker, awesome futuristic books. Main character/POV a guy, which basically almost all nongirly books need.
    The Young Wizards series would be good, so would any of Madeleine L’Engle’s books(Wrinkle Through Time).
    And even though it’s not suppossed to be in here, “So Yesterday” is a book I think would make sense for a whole school to read, it’s easy to relate to, and set in the now, maybe Peeps too.

  31. well, I was looking through all the comments..(lots of comments there, scott, I wonder if I’ll ever be first..)
    and it seemed like all the books i’d recommend are taken..
    hm..my my, that cake looks good..what page is that exactly? couldn’t see closely…

  32. Well I just wanted to let you know me and me and almost everybody body else in my English class has read the uliges series. I was one of the first people to read the books and I heart them! i have also read peeps and I cant with till i find the second one!!! but just wondering do you think you will write another book in the ulgies series???? just wondering well if you cold e-mail me that wold be gret!!!

    Ma’Kaila Stewart

  33. I’m trying to get my school into all the Westerfeld books. My friends are eager to read them, but I don’t have them up here at boarding school in the cold, harsh Adirondacks. My librarian wants me to try to get Scott to visit…

  35. I would have to recomend Twilight and/or New Moon by Stephenie Meyer…all other books that I would have recomended I cannot recall the names of. That happens to me when I’m reading a new book(currently reading The Last Days).

  36. spiderman! spiderman! if king kong can’t catch him no one can!………………………..yes i know those aren’t the words, don’t blog me! but i would recommend mary Jane for middle school becuase it is short and awesome! It is about Mary James side of the story………….what were we talking about again???

  37. you mentioned the giver and the outsiders. well, i live in kentucky and i go to christian academy of louisville and we had to read the giver our 7’th grade year and i am not sure when but i had 2 read the outsiders also.
    if i had to nominate a book for our school i would (pick your book uglies but…..) other than tht i would pick…i dont think i could pick. i am a book fanatic. 4 me its a bok a day. lol
    oh, and by tthe way. u said to write a book. i am 12 years old right now and i have recently finished my book i wrote. i am working on getting it published right now. if you c it around later on, maybe you would like it. its about magic. the title is “freak- the world of magic”

  38. I vote for Philip Pullman’s Golden Compass trilogy.

    That or Midnighters, but you said we couldn’t use your books.

  39. i would like for my whole school to read your books but you said that wasnt a choice

    so i would chose Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

    it is a great book
    i didnt want it to end

    but it takes a frikin’ year to read

    its like 600 pages

    that might not be SO long but im a slow reader

  40. when i said your books i meant the uglies series

    im still reading peeps

    and after that im reading midnighters

  41. ok… so yeah this is definately late but i never really realized the thing down there for the comments so anyway
    comment 15 capt.c’s 32 books- dont want to brag or nothin but i read 45books over the summer

    reason for all the reading ? well i have an annoying twin sister you do the math

    for my fav. book besides scot westerfeld books would have to be FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC by VC Andrews its an old book actually the first one written by her, but it is very good although it does fall under the gotic horror category so if you have anti-gothic parents like mine ( i need freedom! ) dont tell them about it

  42. ok well just so you know i am a complete bibliophile. (i also cant spell but thats beside the point) i have bookshelves full of books ive read all over my room. i have one shelf that have my favorites on display. these are the ones i would suggest:
    1)twilight by stephenie meyers
    2)new moon- stephenie myers
    3)soon to be- Eclipse- stephenie meyers (i hasnt come out yet but when it does o god im pulling an all nighter to read it
    4)midnighters sreies
    5)uglies trilogy
    6)faerie wars- herbie brennan
    7)the purple emperor- herbie brennan
    8)ruler of the realm- herbie brennan
    9)my sister’s keeper- i have no idea sorry
    10) 13 blue envelopes- maureen johnson

    ABSOLUTLY NOTHING BY THE FOLLOWING AUTHORS OR THESE BOOKS:
    *note- this is not to offend them but, these are bad. really bad.
    *the sun also rises
    *the scarlet letter
    *any thing by hemmingway (bad experiecnces note the sun also rises)

  43. my class read The Giver, The Outsiders, annd now we’re reading Uglies!
    I guess my english teachers share the same taste in books as you!

  44. I read my sisiter keeper to!!!!
    it made me cry like crazy at the end and i usally dont cry from books
    by the way… its by Jodi Picoult

  45. I want that cake!!! I would want my school to read:
    Uglies, Pretties or Specials, Scott Westerfeld all the way!!!!!!

  46. The Book Thief or I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak. Both books definitely changed the way I saw the world. Not to mention make me cry.
    or…Twilight By Stephenie Meyer

  47. i called and like my library doesnt have that twilit book and im broke but i did get the cather and the rye but i havnt started it yet im reading a different book called the body od christofer creed you dont know me is also another good book i recommend it but ill have to tell you the author later because for the life of me i just cant remember

    a great and terrible beauty is also good but i really cant remember that author either im having remembering probs these days

    i do like the black and white (naughts and cosses) trilogy to by malorie blackman its really good but the last 2 books dont come out in america til july and august, but my mom ordered them from the uk for my bday yesterday! go me!

  48. ok soooo i tried the cather in the rye book but it was kinda borin( no offense to those who like it ) did it say that his broother was a prostitute on page 2? i thought prostituets were only girls like in the book Candy by kevin brooks

  50. I LOVE The Giver and The Outsiders! I also love Gathering Blue and The Messanger (both following The Giver). Hmmmmm…if I could get my whole school to read one book, it would probably be something based on a real-life experience of a teenager. Yeah, lame, I know, that I can’t think of a title because I’m going completely brain-missing right now, but something like that. It might help kids relate the book to their own lives, which would help them indulge further into the book, which would in turn lead to them loving the book.

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