Author Jack Cheng Thanks Ferndale Students for Reading Many Masks of Andy Zhou Manuscript

Ferndale, MI – Last summer, seven of Mr Blatt’s 6th grade students read the manuscript for Jack Cheng’s forthcoming YA novel, The Many Masks of Andy Zhou. The group read the book before meeting with Jack on a hot July day. The students gave him excellent feedback, which Jack wrote down and used in his following draft. On Tuesday of this week, Jack hand delivered seven copies of the book prior to its June 6th release date for our final FMS book club meeting. Each copy of the book was signed with a custom drawing from Jack. Mr. Blatt said, “This was so special to the kids and me. Jack is a true writing talent—an artist really. [This was] so great to be included, and then so thoughtfully acknowledged.” The class contribution to the writing process was included the end of the book in the acknowledgment section.

The acknowledgement reads, “To the beta readers from Mr. Blatt’s ELA classes at Ferndale Middle School, AKA the Hi-Chew Crew. (Let’s do that again!)”