Frank Morelli: Author Talk

Published 11/19/2019 by Jacquelyn White

Frank Morelli is author of the YALSA-nominated YA novel, “No Sad Songs”, and winner of a 2019 American Fiction Award for best coming-of-age story. In September his latest novel, “Please Return To: Norbert M. Finkelstein”, was released. Written completely in the zany journal entries of a struggling middle school English teacher, it follows one semester in the life of Norbie Finkelstein as he attempts to bring order to his classroom, mend relationships between his students, and protect the meek from the overly bold. Oh, and he also moonlights as a semi-pro wrestler aptly named “the Mort-tician”.

Readers will be spellbound by Norbie’s incredible rise to stardom in the Mapleton Wrestling Federation, but they’ll also be struck by how everyone, even adults, have various “bullies” in their lives and how it takes a whole classroom working in unison--not just as individuals--to knock those villains to the mat with a flying clothesline from the top rope.

More than 70 percent of middle school students report having seen an incidence of bullying occur in their schools, and 30 percent of all students in the United States has admitted to being bullies themselves. Those numbers have to be alarming to any parent or teacher, prompting prominent researchers to label the phenomenon an epidemic. We hope you will join us for an author talk as Mr. Morelli discusses his latest book and speaks on bullying in the school system.

10 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 21 in Central Library's Auditorium