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| photo: JJ Grabenstein | |
Chris Grabenstein is the author of numerous bestselling series, including Lemoncello, Wonderland, Smartest Kid, Dog Squad, and Haunted Mystery. The graphic novel adaptation of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library, illustrated by Douglas Holgate, the artist for the Last Kids on Earth series, was published on the original novel's 10th anniversary and is available now from Random House.
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:
The award-winning, New York Times bestselling Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library is now a full-color, fun-packed graphic novel illustrated by the incredible Douglas Holgate.
On your nightstand now:
Holly by Stephen King and Alan Gratz's Captain America: The Ghost Army. I also recently finished Steve Sheinkin's most recent nonfiction page-turner, Impossible Escape. I am still, like so many of my young fans, what they call a reluctant reader (or a super critical reader). I gravitate toward books and stories that get the movie projector clacking in my brain. King, Gratz, and Sheinkin are all masters at grabbing the reader's attention and never letting go.
Favorite book when you were a child:
If I Ran the Circus by Dr. Seuss and MAD's Don Martin Drops 13 Stories by Don Martin. Sadly, when I was the age most of my readers are now, they made us read color-coded SRA essays in school. No actual books. MAD magazine and MAD Books (along with comic books such as Archie and Richie Rich) were my refuge from dull and boring SRA essays that always came with too many comprehension questions. Looking back, I think they were training us to be SAT takers, not lifelong readers.
Your top five authors:
Stephen King--whenever he has a new release, I get the book and the audio book. He is the voice of my generation!
Steve Sheinkin--nonfiction that reads like the script to an action-packed thriller? I'm in.
Jennifer L. Holm--historical fiction that makes you feel all the feelings!
Christopher Paul Curtis--another must-read for me. Everything he writes is so full of humor and humanity.
And, of course, James Patterson (we've written three dozen books together). When he was my boss in advertising, he taught me to write commercials as if no one wants to or has to read, listen to, or watch anything I've written. We writers have to earn the audience's attention.
Book you've faked reading:
Moby-Dick. I've even visited Herman Melville's house up in the Berkshires where he wrote it to complete the fake. And, yes, if you stare at the mountains from the window of his writing room, they sort of look like a great green whale.
Book you're an evangelist for:
The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. Whenever kids ask me "What's your favorite book?" this is my go-to answer. It does what the best fiction strives to do: it builds empathy and allows me to walk a few hundred pages in someone else's shoes.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Ghosts and Drama by Raina Telgemeier. The covers are so deceptively simple, but they really grabbed my attention when I was browsing the graphic novel shelves. I think Stuart Gibbs's covers are consistently terrific, too.
Book you hid from your parents:
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty. Fortunately, I didn't have to hide it for long. I stayed up all night to finish it and didn't sleep for a week afterward.
Book that changed your life:
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King. I don't think I ever would have attempted to write a novel (let alone the six dozen I've had published) without it. It was the "craft book" that helped me grow from an advertising copywriter producing commercials with 35-70 words in them to someone who could juggle 40,000-50,000 words.
Favorite line from a book:
"God bless us, everyone." A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I try to listen to it every holiday season on my morning walks.
Five books you'll never part with:
Tilt a Whirl by Chris Grabenstein (hey, it was my first published book)
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
The Most of S.J. Perelman by S.J. Perelman, the very funny essayist and original member of the Algonquin Round Table. His words still capture the essence of what makes New York City so special.
Half Magic by Edward Eager. Sigh. This is one of the books I might've read and enjoyed back when I was eight to 12 if we weren't so busy being bored by those color-coded SRA essays.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Wonder by R.J. Palacio. I remember being swept up in the story from the very first chapter. It would be amazing to be swept up again!
Books you wished you had read instead of all those color-coded SRA essays.
Everything by Judy Blume and Edward Eager!