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Joelle Avelino
It was middle school, eighth grade, when a sheltered 13-year-old boy suddenly found himself immersed in an unfamiliar world, guided by a girl who wasn t much older, a girl on the verge of leading a religious movement.
At first glance, it might appear as if all they had in common was age, but there was more. They were both growing up in religious households she a Baptist in a walled community outside of Los Angeles, he a Muslim in suburban Maryland. And they shared a burning desire to understand the constantly evolving, confusing world they occupied.
The boy was me. The girl, Lauren Oya Olamina, is, of course, the main character in Octavia Butler s classic science fiction novel Parable of the Sower. We were introduced by an adventurous middle school English teacher who assigned the book to my class.