Today’s middle-schoolers often become bored with the school curriculum – especially the usual reading list. “They will often complain that storylines don’t move fast enough,” said Laurie Gifford Adams, an English teacher at Gideon Welles School in Glastonbury. “I knew my kids needed something different. I looked for an idea for a long time. I wanted to have an effect.”

That effect came in the form of “Finding Atticus,” the book the Manchester resident wrote in response to her students’ frustrations. “Atticus” centers on a girl, Jamie, of middle-school age, and her dog, Atticus. The two embark on a dramatic adventure, one that caused quite a stir among the jaded kids of Gideon Welles. It came to Adams like an epiphany, one she finds somewhat embarrassing.

“We were visiting my hometown in fall 2008. The idea came to me just as my mother, a minister, was starting her sermon one Sunday. I was sitting in church next to my husband Jim, furiously writing notes on the bulletin,” she said. “He looked at me as if I was crazy!”

Adams hand-wrote the first chapter in the car on the drive home to Connecticut . “I had to – it was just right there,” she explained. “I returned to Glastonbury and read that first part out to my students. I asked them, ‘What do you think will happen next?’ They had no idea, and most importantly, they were hooked.”

Joan Burr, a friend and fellow teacher at Gideon Welles, remembers the time with fondness. “We went on a road trip together to D.C. that October, so we spent a lot of time in the car tossing ideas about. I watched the whole process , up to the day Laurie unveiled the books to her students.”

The first incarnation was a homemade effort Adams printed and spiralbound herself. “It took me an entire weekend,” she said. “I printed and made 25 copies, and we used them in class.”

Adams made life very interesting for her students by introducing a new way to help kids appreciate literature; she invited her students to participate in the book’s editing process.

“We went through it together, everyone making marks with their pens. We spontaneously edited the book as a group. They absolutely loved it. When it was finally finished, I dedicated it to them,” she said.

“Finding Atticus” has since created a momentum all its own and is now available at online bookstores such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon. The book’s popularity is spreading due to the dramatic nature of the plot, which is fictional but has elements of Adams’ life injected into it.

“The most important thing for me is that the book teaches something,” Adams said. “‘ Atticus’ is a book about decisions ; Jamie makes decisions that she thought were right at the time, but which prove horribly wrong. She is forced to take responsibility for her actions – she doesn’t just get away with it. My kids really responded to that, coming as it did at the end of a gripping tale.”

Adams recently sent a copy of “Finding Atticus” to the White House in the hope that the Obama girls might read and enjoy it. You never know…

Laurie Gifford Adams will be interviewed on Page 1 TV (Channel 15 on Cox Cable) on 8 p.m. on Sept. 3. She’s also doing a book signing at Barnes & Noble in Manchester on Sept. 25, from 6-8 p.m.

“Finding Atticus” can be explored further on Laurie Gifford Adams’ personal Web site at http:// www.lauriegiffordadams .com/.