Ledyard — The first year of a new partnership between Ledyard Public Schools and Bank Square Books of Mystic ended last Thursday with a visit from a New York Times best-selling author.

Soman Chainani, author of the School for Good and Evil series, visited three of Ledyard's elementary schools Wednesday and Thursday, explaining his first two books to third- through sixth-grade students in a funny and interactive way.

The series, he said, aims to turn stereotypes regarding good, bad, gender and age upside down.

"I wanted to create the anti-Disney fairy tale. I think it's unfair if good wins every time," Chainani said, adding that he doesn't label his characters as good or bad. "The villain in the first book might be the hero in the second book. The villain in the first 50 pages might be the hero in the second 50 pages."

In his presentation, Chainani worked in examples of what many 19th-century fairy tales were like, including the one that ultimately morphed into Disney movie "The Little Mermaid."

In the real book, he explained, the Little Mermaid made all the same questionable decisions, but she didn't live happily as a result — she lived in pain, lost her prince and plunged into the sea to die.

He said his books aim to recreate the "balance of good and evil" that used to exist in fairy tales.

"(Pre-teenagers) have such black and white views of what a hero is, what a villain is," Chainani said. "The whole thing with this series is to mess up their stereotypes ... to take those things, blow them up and make them really question these big terms they believe in."

He said he thinks he'll stick to this age group because it's where he can have "more of an impact."

"Teenagers are looking for something specific that they already have in their head," Chainani said. "I feel like, with this group, you can kind of lead them to something and help them discover something."

Chainani's presentation was only one part of the reading outreach program, though, which grew out of the professional growth goals of Holly Miller, K-8 district language arts coordinator at Ledyard. In the other, students volunteered to read advance copies of various books and write concise reviews for display in Bank Square Books.

In one review, for example, a sixth-grader said "The Question of Miracles" requires readers "to think deeply," recommending "The Secret Language of Girls" for those who enjoy doing that.

For each aspect of the program, Miller shared a goal similar to Chainani's: to open the students' eyes to things they may not have considered.

"It's about understanding there's a world of reading outside the school setting ... and bringing back and instilling the passion and motivation for reading," Miller said.

For at least three fifth-grade girls, it seems to have worked: they said they probably wouldn't have picked up Chainani's book on their own.

"Our teacher actually started reading it to us and then we got into it," said one of them, Gia Figueroa, who's in the middle of reading the first book and enjoying it "so far." "I thought it would be more Disney-ish ... but it's different."

Both Miller and Bank Square Books co-owner Patience Banister, who said children's book buyer Kelsey April played the largest role in the partnership, hope to continue and possibly expand the program next year.

"Whether it's for the Ledyard schools, the Groton schools, Norwich Tech ... anything that we can do to support the schools is really important to us as a bookstore," Banister said.

l.boyle@theday.com

Twitter: @LindsayABoyle