The Roanoke Times | File April

Author Greg Mortenson, who visited area schools this spring, donated copies of his book "Three Cups of Tea" to Blacksburg Middle School and Christiansburg Middle School.

Students at Blacksburg Middle School and Christiansburg Middle School are using the best-seller "Three Cups of Tea" as a lesson in more than just English classes.

The book chronicles author Greg Mortenson's time attempting to build a school in the Pakistan village of Korphe. It stresses the need to overcome cultural barriers and promote peace, and teachers say they want students to learn those same lessons.

Mortenson visited Virginia Tech in April and donated the books to the middle schools afterward.

Blacksburg teachers Justine Brantley and Andrea Langston said they were surprised by the author's kindness -- at his book signing, they shared that they were teachers and Mortenson offered to donate books for the close to 900 students in at Blacksburg Middle, they said.

Christiansburg Middle School leaders heard about the donation and asked about getting their own books, Principal Ryan Hitchman said.

"We wanted to use it to expand our social studies classes," he said.

The donated books are student editions and include discussion questions students can use to talk about different cultures in classes such as social studies.

"Literacy is about more than just reading," Brantley said.

Teachers at Blacksburg Middle School will start looking at ways to use the book schoolwide this week. Students at Christiansburg Middle School already have started reading it in the 24 minutes of their first-period classes, Hitchman said. He said teachers are sharing lessons with each other on how to incorporate the book into their curricula.

MERIT SCHOLARS

Blacksburg High School students named Merit finalists

Five Blacksburg High School seniors are in the hunt to be 2010 National Merit Scholarship winners, according to a news release from the organization.

Jonathan Eubank, Katherine Luke, Norienne McBee, Wyatt Reed and Benjamin Weinstei-Raun are listed among 16,000 semifinalists nationally for the prestigious scholarship award.

Scholarship semifinalists are chosen based on their preliminary SAT scores, which are typically taken in a student's sophomore year. Semifinalists are considered the top scorers.

Finalists are chosen on their academic record, recommendations from high school principals and their actual SAT scores.

Finalists, who are eligible to receive one of three monetary awards, will be announced in the spring and are usually considered top high school students.