‘Freak the Mighty’ Author Skypes with Arcola Students

On Dec. 21, over 800 Arcola Intermediate School students sat in their school’s auditorium, waiting patiently for “Freak the Mighty” author Rodman Philbrick to arrive from his residence in Florida.

However, they didn’t have to wait long, as the author paid them a visit through the online video-conferencing tool Skype.

“We have prepared an extremely exceptional opportunity here,” Arcola principal Lu Page told the students.

She said that it is rare for anyone to be able to speak with an author of a popular book they had just read. Page added this occasion should be considered even more exciting as the Skype session is the culmination of the school’s first initiative.

Since September, Arcola’s 800 students, and over 100 staff and faculty read “Freak the Mighty” for the school’s newest initiative.

“It was really nice; everyone got together,” Katie Price, Arcola seventh-grade student, said. “We talked to other people in other classes about it.”

Katie said that she enjoyed reading “Freak the Mighty” and liked the twists and character complexity, as well as discussing the complex themes of the book.

One of the themes dealt with the death of a main character, who is a middle-school-aged boy.

“Memories are connections of the mind,” Katie said, explaining her understanding of death from the themes in the book. “If you lose someone, you can keep them in your heart.”

According to Connie MacLuckie, Arcola reading specialist, helping the students understand such complex subjects is why “Freak the Mighty” was chosen as the school’s first One Book, One School book.

“We picked a book that the kids can relate to,” MacLuckie said. “They can talk about these things in a very safe way.”

MacLuckie said that the students successfully discussed such delicate themes as death, bullying and learning disabilities, because they were all reading the same book.

During the Skype session with Philbrick, the students got the opportunity to ask for deeper insight about those themes and characters.

While MacLuckie said that the students were used to such communication technology in their classrooms, the auditorium Skype session was a first for participation of the whole student body, for which the auditorium’s giant projection screen was used.

She also noted how well-behaved and what careful attention they paid to Philbrick as he answered each of their prepared questions.

Skyping with Philbrick

While technical difficulties occasionally hampered the Skype session, it was apparent that the over 800 Arcola students recognized the rare opportunity to speak with an author of a popular young adult novel, particularly one the entire school had been talking about for four months.

According to Philbrick’s website, “Freak the Mighty,” published in 1993, is a realistic young adult fiction story about middle-school aged friends, each with a disability, who overcome adversities because of their friendship.

In preparation of Philbrick’s visit, the students submitted questions on the shool library’s website. Twenty questions were asked during the Skype session, sought insight into character’s minds or pondered the inspiration for the characters themselves.

Philbrick shared that the main characters, Max, who has a learning disability, and Kevin, who has morquio syndrome, from which he needs to wear leg braces, were based on real people he knew when he was 12 or 13 years old.

“I went back in my own little time machine and went back to all the kids when they were that age,” Philbrick said. 

One student asked about using the word “Freak” in the title, which spoke to one of the book’s major themes of acceptance. Philbrick explained that Max and Kevin’s friendship would help others see past the mean connotation of the word.

“I knew that these kids would make it triumphant somehow,” Philbrick said of his main characters.

Another student asked what it takes to be a professional writer.

“I started paying attention to the world,’ Philbrick said. “As a writer, you have to learn how to listen to people.”

The author also gave the students little-known jewels of information about the book, including the fact that the artist Sting used some of the book’s words as part of the soundtrack of the book’s movie version, which the students saw immediately after the Skype session.

At the end of the half-hour-long session, Philbrick wished the students happy holidays, and parted with advice to last a lifetime.

“Just remember to keep on reading, that’s what exercises the muscle that is your brain,” Philbrick told the students. “Just crack open a book and give it a chance.”