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Penn State graduate Ariela Rossberg held her Read FTK! event at Webster’s earlier today with a small crowd of people, comprised of children at heart.

“I’m not used to reading to adults!,” Rossberg announced right before she started reading her Amazon Best Seller book, The Gray Days.

She read her book as if she would read it to children, with such enthusiasm. She helped bring the book to life to the audience, who absolutely enjoyed hearing her read her story out loud.

Afterwards, the crowd held a brief Q&A with her, asking her questions about how the illustrations came to be, where she drew her inspiration from, among other things related to her career.

The illustrations were done by second and third graders at Oaks School #3 in Oceanside, New York, where her mom is a teacher. Before she published her book, she read the story to those second and third graders. The kids then asked her mom if they could draw pictures to go along with the story, as their way of saying thank you to her reading it to them. The illustrations are one reason why she loves reading the book to children, because they can easily relate to the pictures, as if they drew them themselves.

“Even though there were no kids, it was still nice to read to an adult audience. I haven’t done that yet!,” she exclaimed to the audience at the conclusion of the event, before she started signing copies for people.

All of the proceeds from the books sold today will be donated to the Four Diamonds Fund, a cause that Rossberg is very proud to support.