Author Paula Reed: Hester

Listen Now

For years, Paula Reed has taught Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" to her students at Columbine High School. The classic always leaves her young readers with questions-- ones Reed sometimes struggles to answer. And that's partly why she decided to write a sequel, of sorts. Reed's new book is called "Hester: The Missing Years of the Scarlet Letter." Hester is Hester Prynne, of course, a character in 1600's Puritan New England, who's forced to wear a scarlet "A"-- for committing adultery. At the end of Hawthorne's novel, Hester disappears-- only to return seven years later. Reed's book fills in the gap and she joins Ryan Warner in the studio.