Torrey Maldonado

When I give a young person a book, it's the same as when I teach a lesson.

I want the young person to say, I want to read this again, or I'm going to read something like it again.

And same way with classes.

When I teach, I want young people to say, oh my God, the class is over.

Can I have you two periods?

How can we have you the whole day?

Not letting young people down

And uplifting young people, getting them unplugged in, that's really important to me.

Another thing, teaching for 30 years has taught me what I've known my whole life, that there's a lot that young people carry.

There's a lot of weight.

And as an educator, I don't want to add any more weight to a young person's life.

So I try to keep my classes light.

I try to keep my writing light.

I try to create a safe space where they are invited.

And once they're invited, they feel like it's rollercoaster fiction.

There are these ups that they want.

There's these downs that are not too down for them.

And at the end, they want to read more.

They want to experience more of my work and similar work.

Yeah.