Beacon House Author Interview With Jonae

Jonae, hard at work on her next book!

Recently, we sat down with Jonae, a Beacon House author of Trinitoga and our upcoming book, The Day Tajon Got Shot. We got the opportunity to ask her about her reaction to other students and adults who have read her work, and what it means to her to be a teenage author.

Kathy: So Jonae you are one of the authors for Trinitoga and you’re also part of Reach Incorporated, and Reach read your book, Trinitoga. What was that like for your fellow students to be reading a book that you wrote?

Jonae: Felt good.

K: How so? Why’d it feel good?

J: Well I mean to know that somebody read my book. It just felt good.

K: What did they think of it?

J: They thought it was interesting. A lot of drama.

K: What kind of discussions did you have while you were reading it?

J: After we read, like, a paragraph of one chapter. We stopped and were like, what do we think is going to happen next?

K: Could they guess what was going to happen next?

J: Mm-hm. But sometimes they were surprised.

K: Did they know that you were one of the authors of this book?

J: No they didn’t know. They got to my part of the story, Tianna, and it was like, Oh my god.

K: And then they were like, Whoa, this is you? Were they surprised?

J: Yeah.

K: What did they say to you about your part?

J: They said it was good, they liked it. They said it was interesting, a lot of drama.

K: Why do you think it’s important that kids or teenagers can read books written by other teenagers?

J: Because it relates to them. Because a lot of people like drama books, action, stuff like that. They’re more interesting to read.

K: A lot of people like drama books. And are teenagers better able to write those kinds of drama stories?

J: Mm-hm. Cause we see it. Some teenagers see it every day.

K: So it’s like a cool way to connect

J: Mm-hm