LAWRENCE — Over the summer, Michelle Abou-Raad read "The Rules of Survival," a heart-wrenching story about three children who are abused by their mother.
Last week, Abou-Raad got to meet Nancy Werlin, the woman who penned the suspense novel.
"It's my favorite book," said Abou-Raad, a freshman at Central Catholic High School. "It was an interesting experience to see what she had to say about her own book."
Werlin spoke to students at Central Catholic as part of its Authors in the Classroom series.
English teacher Karen Moynihan came up with the idea for the program after Mary McGarry Morris of Andover visited her AP English class to discuss her books. Morris wrote "Songs in Ordinary Times," "Vanished" and "A Dangerous Woman."
"I just want students to develop a love of reading because one of the greatest enrichment in life is to read a book," said Moynihan.
During the summer, Central students have the option of reading three books and write a paper on each. In turn, they get 1/4 credit and are exempt from taking the English midterm.
Moynihan, whose been teaching at Central for 31 years, said Werlin's book was one of the most popular students read this summer.
"I think it had to do with the fact that it was set in Boston, it involved kids their ages and it kept them at the edge of their seat that they just kept turning the pages," she said.
Freshman Sean Murphy was happy to have met Werlin.
"Meeting her made the book come alive because she is a real person," said Murphy of Atkinson, N.H.
Another reason Moynihan wants her students to meet famous writers is to teach them about the process of publishing a novel.
During the assembly for freshman, Werlin, 46, told the students she got the idea for the book after witnessing a father yelling at his son at a store.
"I felt very guilty about not doing anything about it," she said. "This is my way of atoning for that time."
Werlin admits the book was difficult to write because of the subject matter.
"I felt it was my mission. This is the story given to me to write. To me, those kids were real and I wanted to make sure they were going to be OK," she said.
Werlin was born and raised in Peabody. She graduated from Peabody High in 1979 and received a degree in English from Yale University.
She has been writing short stories since the seventh grade and is also an avid reader, reading up to 20 books a week in every genre — fantasy, crime, writer's biographies, science fiction and romance.
"I found out quickly that once I opened a book, I was in someone's life and going from adventure after adventure," she said.
