As a follow-up to reading The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau, Mrs. McKenzie's 6th grade Honors English class had the unique opportunity to visit with the author via Google Meets!  The students had many questions for Ms. DuPrau about the crafting of the book as well as any input she may have had in the movie that was based on the title. They learned quite a lot about Ms. DuPrau like the fact that she was once a high school teacher, and that it took ten years, working on and off, to finish her first book, The City of Ember.  The students also learned about who some of her characters were based on in real life and how she put those traits into the characters. Some advice that she had for our budding writers is that one should be patient with the writing process and that writing must go through several revisions before it is considered finished. When talking about her main character, Lina (with a long i sound), Ms. DuPrau expressed how impressed she was that our sharp readers picked up on the one clue as to the correct pronunciation of the main character's name! She stated that we were among the few to have discovered that little element! Although our visit was limited to about 25 minutes, everyone had a wonderful time getting to know this author whose work they really enjoyed reading. To have a private and intimate virtual meeting with Ms. DuPrau is a memory that will last a lifetime for many of the students, and these Nuggets were appreciative of this rare opportunity