This morning, 50 students from Turrill Elementary’s Intersession sat down with Johnathan Rand, a spooky scribe best known for his Michigan Chillers series.

Rand told a few stories to the students, including one about how he got his first job in media — writing commercials for a radio station. He talked about his childhood, his journey to adulthood and his current life as an author.

His most important advice for students came later in his one-hour talk, when he shared with students his most heartfelt conviction: “Reading is not something you do; reading is a place you go.” He also encouraged students to look at something as simple as a pencil in a much different way. A pencil, he said, is more like a magic wand; it, after all, can create just about anything.

Intersession weeks are excellent opportunities for parents of year-round students to take advantage of increased instructional time during breaks (year-round students have shorter, more frequents breaks than students on the traditional calendar). The theme of this first Intersession week is “Adventures, Thrills and Chills of Michigan.”

Intersession weeks run Monday through Friday from 8:25 a.m. – 3:29 p.m. and transportation is provided. The cost for year-round families is $110 for the first student and $100 for the second. For more information, contact Intersession Coordinator Katherine Prieur at kprieur@lapeerschools.org.