FASIKA JEMBERE

Fasika Jembere, 16, is a Grade 11 student at Clear Water Academy. In her off hours she plays sports, spends time with friends, and reads—a lot. Jembere gets through about three books a week—she makes good use of her daily commute on public transit—and while she reads various genres, she loves classic novels and contemporary fiction (science fiction not so much).

Jembere has volunteered at the library for four years, and was recently asked to join the Teen Advisory Group. “I think people should know how valuable it is that so many of us have the ability to read, because reading truly is a great gift—one that is able to transport us to various worlds and teach us lessons that we may have never learned. I think reading is very underrated nowadays, and should be valued more in this world.”

FAVOURITE BOOKS INCLUDE: The Perks of Being a Wallflower, To Kill A Mockingbird and The Catcher in the Rye. AMONG HER FAVOURITE AUTHORS: J.K. Rowling, Jane Austen and John Green.

THE BOOK THAT CHANGED HER LIFE: Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher. “That novel taught me that how we perceive people is not always the way they are inside. It really enlightened me to the struggles that many people face with suicide and mental illnesses. A quote that really resonated with me is, ‘No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of others.’ This line made me think about how I interact with people, and how my actions and words can have much larger repercussions than I intended them to have.”