Wednesday April 19, English teacher Michele Dunaway had an in-class visit from New York Times bestselling author Andrew McCarthy.

The class had collectively read McCarthy’s first novel Just Fly Away, which came out March 28. The young adult novel revolves around a 15-year-old named Lucy Willows and her life. The coming-of-age story shows how Lucy struggles with the fact that her father had a child with another woman, and her coming to terms with how her father is not the person she thought he was. From then the novel delves further into her adventures of trying to find out the truth of what is happening in her family.

“The book was great! I loved all of the twists and turns the plot had; it made everything so unexpected and made me want to keep reading,” senior Megan Lanham said.

“I like it when someone who has any sort of interest in a certain field or job comes to our school; it’s super encouraging. It can help you figure out if maybe you do want to pursue a certain passion more, and even if it doesn’t, it’s still a wonderful experience,” senior Mikayla Angeli said.

McCarthy took the time to come to Howell and talk to Dunaway’s students more about the book, get feedback straight from young readers, and speak about how he went from being an actor to author.

“It was super interesting to pick his brain and figure out how he came up with characters,” Angeli said. “It allowed us to connect with the characters in a different way that we couldn’t from just reading the book.”