With a second Newbery to his name, author Gary Schmidt dishes about his work, his fan mail and the toils of writing for tykes.
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Children’s book author Gary Schmidt remembers his first work for kids as less than gripping. Actually, “it stunk,” says Schmidt, a professor of English at Calvin College in Grand Rapids. “Green fog, talking animals, stuff like that. It’s sitting in a drawer, and no one will ever read it.”
These days, plenty of kids (and adults) are reading Schmidt’s books, which have received some of the highest honors in children’s literature. The Wednesday Wars – the funny, poignant tale of a boy growing up in the Vietnam War era – just won a 2008 Newbery Honor from the American Library Association. His previous book, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, received the same accolade in 2005, the day after it picked up an ALA Printz Honor for excellence in young adult literature. Schmidt lives with his family on a farm in Alto, Mich. His latest book, Trouble, comes out this month.
On the writing process: First you sit down
and you go, “Crap, crap, crap. I’m never going to be able to do this. I should just give up.” That takes a few weeks. Then you have to hear the voice of a narrator. All the tonalities and personality that lie behind that voice – at least some of that has to be in place. Once you’ve got the voice down, the next thing is character. And then you put your character in situations and watch how they play out.
On writing for children: I think a lot of people don’t understand that it is much more difficult to write for a child audience. They’ll be like, “Can’t you just knock it off in a day or two?” When a kid picks up a book, it’s quite possible that this is something he or she will have as literary baggage for a lifetime. I feel it’s a huge responsibility. The books that we read very early – we really do carry those stories with us forever. What does that say to the writer of children’s books? It says there’s no screwing around. You better get this right.
On setting his stories out east: I went to college in New England (Gordon College in Wenham, Mass.). I’ve always loved it there, so much of my stuff is set there. I have thought, “Why haven’t I set one here in Michigan?” But it just hasn’t happened. Sometimes the stories choose you more than you choose the stories.
On winning Newbery and Printz Honors in the same year: The Printz winners were named on a Sunday. On Monday, the call from the Newbery committee came while I was eating breakfast. My first thought was, “They don’t know about the Printz Honor! They might take it away from me!” I found really quickly that the Newbery and Printz don’t help you write the next book. They make it a little harder, actually.
On advising would-be writers: If they’re kids, I say, “Read everything. Read comics, read essays, read fantasy, read realism, read newspapers.” To college students I say, “You have to really, really want this. You have to be satisfied with knowing that you’ve done the thing you wanted to do. If you’re in it for applause, be an ice skater or something.”
On letters from children: A young girl wrote and said, “I’ve got this book that I’ve written. It’s 27 handwritten pages. If I send it to you, would you promise not to take any ideas? Not to be mean, but I don’t really know you.” Isn’t that honest? I thought that was so cool. I wrote back and said, “Yeah, go ahead, I promise.” But she never sent it. I think she doesn’t trust me.
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