A Season of Gifts

Mrs. Dowdel isn't a church woman, and she doesn't "neighbor." In fact, she is downright cranky, well-armed and old enough to have one foot in the grave. Yet, in her own inimitable way, she manages to make Christmas of 1958 merry and memorable for Bob, Phyllis and Ruth Ann -- the preacher's kids who live next to her ramshackle house in a podunk, Illinois town.

A Season of Gifts is classic Richard Peck. In fact, this 164-page novel (Dial, $16.99) is a companion to his A Long Way From Chicago and A Year Down Yonder, which, respectively, won a Newbery Honor and a Newbery Medal.

Peck is a craftsman who writes so well, he makes it look easy. I love his straightforward storytelling, laced with gentle humor and affection for the rugged individualists who populate his world. Although the story is easily accessible to children ages 9 to 12, the writing is so effortlessly engaging that many adults will enjoy it as well -- and understand more of the cultural references.

In A Season of Gifts, we meet Roscoe Burdick, a 20-year-year bruiser of a bully who adds heart-pounding terror to 12-year-old Bob's life, reminding us that the good old days weren't always so good. All the better to savor Roscoe's comeuppance.

Then there's Waynetta Blalock, the red-headed homecoming queen who heads a forbidden sorority called Iota Nu Beta. Suffice to say that Waynetta travels in different circles from 16-year-old Phyllis, who owns only two skirts and isn't allowed to wear makeup -- which doesn't stop her from mooning over Elvis.

Six-year-old Ruth Ann is our window into Mrs. Dowdel, who, surprisingly, doesn't mind the little girl dogging her footsteps. Ruth Ann spends hours at Mrs. Dowdel's, helping with the holiday baking and unconsciously picking up the old lady's mannerisms and backwood expressions. Hoo-boy!

Add an old, green car called the Pickle, the mystery of the Kickapoo Princess, a long-lost relative and an unexpected wedding and you've got the makings of a feel-good coming-of-age story with all the holiday trimmings.

Judging the Best

Once again this blog got derailed by the pressures of full-time college courses. It's great to have a break and turn my attention once more to children's books.

Here's a nice welcome back: I was invited to be one of the judges for the inaugural children's book contest of the Page Ahead Literacy Program, which gives new books to low-income children.

The Seattle organization, which is about to celebrate its 20th anniversary, has created Page Ahead's Best Book for Kids to honor top titles in the categories of nonfiction, read-aloud and multicultural. I'm expecting about 15 contest entries to arrive in the mail next month for my reading-and-rating perusal. Sounds like fun. Awards will be announced in April at a ceremony in downtown Seattle.

Jeff Kinney, A Not-So-Wimpy Author

At 38, Jeff Kinney has yet to realize his longtime dream of being a newspaper cartoonist -- and, given the state of the newspaper industry, he's smart enough to know he dodged a bullet on that one.

Instead, he has become a bestselling author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. The fourth installment, subtitled Dog Days, was released Oct. 12 with an initial print run of four million copies, and a Wimpy Kid film version is in the works.

Kinney, who lives in southern Massachusetts, is making the bookstore circuit and, as I mentioned in a previous post, will make a signing appearance at 1 p.m. Sunday, October 18, at University Book Store in Seattle.


If you've enjoyed the misadventures of his cowlicked, middle-school hero, Greg Heffley, and want to know more about his amiable creator, read on. I emailed some burning questions to Kinney and his answers just hit my inbox.

Q. The Wimpy Kid series is a hit with reluctant and avid readers alike. How do you explain its broad appeal – and the fact that your signings are now drawing thousands of kids?

A. I think that what appeals to kids is the humor and the format. I work hard on the jokes and try to keep the humor at a high level. I think that the mix of cartoons and handwritten text is appealing to kids… the books don’t look threatening or overwhelming.

You’ve said many times that Greg Heffley is not a role model. What do you mean by that – and is there any reason he should be?

Most of the humor in the books comes from Greg's imperfections. The reader understands that Greg doesn't always do the right thing, and that's what makes him funny. I think that if I tried to moralize as a writer, kids would be turned off. The key to Greg is the fact that the reader can relate to him. So I think Greg is fine just the way he is.

Your personal story of persistence in the face of crushing rejection is pretty inspiring. Three years ago you were, in the words of The Washington Post, a “failed cartoonist who couldn’t get in the door at a comics convention.” Now you’re a lauded, bestselling author. Does that make you a role model?

I'd love to think that I might inspire someone else to stick with their dreams. I once read a Benjamin Franklin quote on a billboard that said, "Well done is better than well said." I really like that. I think that creators often tell people what their plans are, and then when those plans don't come to fruition, they feel embarrassed for having failed. I think it's better to turn off the t.v. and get to work, and to keep your plans to yourself. Then surprise the world with what you've been working on.

Why did you want to be a cartoonist in the first place? And are you worried that opportunties for cartoonists are dwindling?

I tried my hand at cartooning in college, and I got hooked. It’s an amazing thing to see a stranger laughing at a joke you wrote. I feel very lucky to not have been picked up as a newspaper cartoonist, because the landscape is very tough right now. But I do still feel that becoming a newspaper cartoonist is an unfulfilled dream.

Wimpy Kid started out as an online serial. Would you briefly recap how that took place? How might other unknown authors use the web to break through and gain an audience?

I was lucky enough to manage a kids' website that had millions of regular visitors, Funbrain.com. I used the site as a testing ground for my material. By the time I was finished posting my entries, I had 1,300 pages and 20 million readers. That was a great launching point for the book, and in fact, people still read the book online. I think the web is a great place to build an audience, but to be honest, it would be hard to start from scratch.

Your insights into kids’ lives are quite funny. Would they have the same impact if the stories were told only through text, without the accompanying cartoons? What do you think the drawings add that can’t be conveyed in words?

I think the cartoons in my books help convey the humor, and my books wouldn't be very good without the illustrations. I use them as a crutch, in a way. My books are written in the language of comics.

I understand you originally envisioned Wimpy Kid as a book for adults. Why did you have misgivings about Abrams marketing it for kids?

At first, I was a little bit fearful that kids would take Greg at face value and not understand that his plans and schemes aren't on the up and up. But I've come to see that kids have a sophisticated point of view, and I no longer worry. That being said, I don't think kids younger than 9 should be reading the books without a little parental guidance. I don't think Greg is a bad kid by any means, but some of the things he does should spark discussion between parents and kids.

What’s the status of the Twentieth Century Fox film project? Please explain how filmmakers plan to translate the stories’ inner dialog and comic drawings into a live-action film. It seems like a difficult leap.

The movie is wrapping up in the next two days! The movie is just a different expression of the book. There are some things that are done better on the written page, and some things that are done better onscreen. For example, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz play in the book is conveyed in simple line drawings. In the movie, you get to see the play in full bloom, with hundreds of people in the audience. I also think you get a better emotional connection with the characters than you do in the books, because the stick figures are replaced with real-live human beings.

Last I heard, you still had your day job. What is that, exactly, and why haven’t you left it to concentrate fully on the Wimpy Kid series?

I do have a day job. I work as a designer and developer of the virtual world Poptropica.com, which is an online site for kids. I keep my day job, because I like doing what I do and working with the people I work with. I also don't want to become one-note and make my whole life be about Greg Heffley.

You have said you see the series maxing out at five to seven books. What will you do then? Do you have some other children’s book projects in mind?

I'm not sure!! I might work on movies or a t.v. show. Or I might come up with a new idea that rivals Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Of course what will probably happen is that I'll come out with a new series, which will flop, and then I'll spend the rest of my life trying to repeat the success I've had with Wimpy Kid.

How old are your two sons? Are they Wimpy fans?

Four and 6, and yes, they like it when their mom reads the books to them. :)

What do you plan to do at your Seattle signings? Will you do any drawing?

My appearance in Seattle will be a straight book signing. Unfortunately, because of the size of the crowds that have been showing up lately, I'm not able to address the audience from a stage. That's something I really miss doing!

You can learn more about Kinney and the Wimpy Kid series at Kinney's website, which includes links to some in-depth newspaper profiles. To read Diary of a Wimpy Kid online, click here.

"Wimpy" Author Coming to Seattle

Here's your chance to see a superstar of the children's book world. Jeff Kinney, author of the hugely popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, will be signing books Sunday, Oct. 18, at 1 p.m. at Seattle's University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE.

Later this week I'll post a Q&A with Kinney. My e-mailed questions are heading his way, and I'll get his answers up asap after I hear back.

Meanwhile, free signing tickets, each good for up to four people, will be available at U Book Store beginning Wednesday. Here are the ground rules, according to store personnel: It's not necessary to buy a book to receive a ticket, and Kinney is willing to sign more than one book per person. He'll also pose for photos, but he won't personalize his signings.

This is a signing, pure and simple, so don't expect Kinney to get up and entertain the crowd. That's disappointing, but you take what you can get. Given the pared-down nature of the event, the bookstore doesn't expect anything like the 2,000 to 3,000 fans who have swamped his more elaborate East Coast appearances.

The Wimpy Kid books, which began as an online serial (Click here for a look), explore the mundanely hilarious misadventures of a middle-school kid named Greg Heffley. A hybrid of comic art and faux-handwritten "journal" text, they appeal to anyone (especially fifth-grade boys) with an appreciation for the goofier aspects of childhood. There are 11 million Wimpy Kid books in print.

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A "Wild" Argument

It takes healthy self-confidence to diss Where the Wild Things Are, a picture-book classic that is widely acknowledged as one of the greats. Bruce Handy does just that in today's New York Times book section. (See http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/books/review/Handy-t.html?ref=books) He argues that Maurice Sendak's tale of Max, who tames monsters in a far-off land after his mother sends him to his room without supper, is less appealing to children than to adults -- especially adults who've spent years on the couch.

"The wit and richness of Sendak’s drawings, the poetic concision of his story, its empathy and dreamlike lilt, can move me near to tears," Handy writes, from his perspective as an adult steeped in psychological theory.

"But as a child myself," Handy continues, "without benefit of personal insights subsequently gleaned from more than a decade of talk therapy, I had been left cold by Where the Wild Things Are. I don’t really remember why."

Not only that, he said, but his two children were never fans of the book, and in his informal poll of a couple of dozen friends and children's book professionals, he said he was struck by how many said "Sendak’s work had eluded their younger selves and/or their own offspring."

What to make of this?

Sendak's work is sophisticated and sometimes dark -- I tend to prefer the charming, straightforward drawings of his early career -- and it's easy to understand why adults would find his work appealing. But I have a hard time buying the idea that kids en masse are turned off by his books. Different books resonate with different kids. Sometimes the same book will bore a child one year and enchant her the next.

I was already past the picture book stage when Where the Wild Things Are was published in 1963, so I can't use my own childhood memories to make a case either way. My curiosity piqued, I asked my 18-year-old son whether he remembered the book and liked it as a child. Puzzled at the question, he said yes. When I mentioned Handy's contention that the book is more appealing to adults than kids, he looked mystified and said, "I don't think that's true."

Handy does raise an interesting question, though. Are there children's books that resonate more with adults than with children? Without a doubt. The thorny part is reaching consensus on which titles fit that description.

Handy singles out The Wind in the Willows, Winnie-the-Pooh, Eloise and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as Exhibits A through D. I'm with him on The Wind in the Willows. It was my father's childhood favorite, and I remember him talking it up. I checked it out of the library once and felt vaguely guilty when I couldn't get into it.

On the other hand, I have fond memories of sitting on the couch with my father as he read me Winnie-the-Pooh. It's the only book I recall him reading aloud. How could I not love it?

Eloise, subtitled A Book for Precocious Grownups, is pitched to adult sensibilities, but as a child I loved the funny drawings and the very idea of a slightly feral child living large in the Plaza Hotel. I'd call that one a draw.

As for Alice, the Tenniel illustrations scared me but held a dark fascination I ultimately could not resist. Those pictures lured me into a witty, multilayered tale that became one of my favorite books of all time.