Author tells students tale of perseverance

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Author Chandra Prasad signs a copy of her latest novel, ‘Damselfly,’ for City Hill Middle School eighth-grader Alana Torres after Prasad spoke to eighth-graders last week at the school in Naugatuck. Prasad spoke about the writing process as well as the importance of persistence. -PAUL SINGLEY

NAUGATUCK — Students at City Hill Middle School learned about the importance of perseverance from a published author who spoke about her latest novel to eighth-graders last week.

Chandra Prasad — author of seven novels and a visiting fellow at Morse College, a residential college at her alma-mater, Yale University — told more than 300 students in City Hill’s auditorium last week that she did not give up on her dream of being an author after her first, second or even 100th book rejection letter. With seven published books to her name, Prasad said she is thankful she persisted.

“I guess my number one lesson is resilience,” she said. “I’ve had hundreds and hundreds of rejection letters in my life, and ultimately, I’ve still been able to become a successful author.”

That was just the kind of lesson language arts teacher Meaghan Banti had in mind when she invited Prasad to the school to speak about her new book, “Damselfly,” a young adult suspense and coming-of-age novel published by Scholastic. Students read passages from the book in their language arts classes prior to Prasad’s visit and formulated questions to ask Prasad during the assembly. Many of the questions centered on the writing process.

Prasad echoed remarks that students hear regularly from their language arts teachers: edit your work, first drafts are meant to be revised, read your papers thoroughly, etc.

And she spoke about “Damselfly,” which is Prasad’s first foray into young adult literature. The novel, which Prasad said is being taught in schools across Connecticut and elsewhere as a modern-day companion book to the 1954 novel “Lord of the Flies,” has a similar setting as the classic tale by William Golding that is taught in middle and high schools nationwide.

In “Damselfly,” teenagers from a private school end up on a deserted tropical island following a plane crash. The survivors, a diverse group of teammates from the Drake Rosemont fencing team, soon discover there is a mysterious presence on the island that haunts them. The students find they must work together to survive.

And, similar to the characters in her novel, Prasad said she is proof that one must never give up.

After signing autographs for students in the school’s library, she said, “I hope to show kids that they just need to keep trying and to believe in themselves.”