Author Bart King has made a successful writing career with such hit books as The Big Book of Boy Stuff , The Pocket Guide to Mischief and The Big Book of Girl Stuff. I am delighted that Bart King agreed to be interviewed for my blog.
When and why did you start writing for children?
I was afraid of being called out by my students.
As a second-year teacher, I remember surveying my classroom and thinking, “It’s only a matter of time before one of these kids looks up and wonders if the bald guy giving out all the writing assignments has any game of his own.”
So I started writing in anticipation of being asked what writing projects I was working on.
Tragically, no student ever did ask me, but if one had, I’d have been ready with an answer!
Most of my subsequent writing has been intended for middle school students (though immature adults have also been known to enjoy it). By writing in a humorous vein, I’m trying to tempt reluctant readers to my books, so I suppose that in my own small and futile way, I’m trying to strike a blow for literacy.
So while I write material that is willfully silly and gratuitously gross humorous, I make sure that I’m slipping in some subtext that has redeeming social, educational, or historical value. And even while I’m trying to write the book I’d want to read as a 12-year old, I bent over backwards and even leaned a little forward trying to keep my books wholesome and good-spirited.
What is the most valuable advice you can give to a newly published writer?
Philip Pullman once said that the most important thing for a fiction writer to do is to “grab the reader by the throat and never let go.”
Most of what I write is nonfiction, so I’ve adapted this advice to firmly grasping the reader’s pancreas and then almost immediately releasing it.
What is one of your favorite children’s books that you'd like to recommend?
Edgar and Parin d'Aulaire’s book d’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths was reprinted in 2005. I wouldn’t consider any children’s or middle reader’s library complete without a copy.
What are you working on now?
I’ve just finished editing and adapting The Pocket Guide to Games. Its source material is a 1909 book by an extraordinary woman named Jessie H. Bancroft. At the tender age of 25, Bancroft was hired as the Director of Physical Culture for Brooklyn’s public schools. She researched games amid the immigrant populations of New York City and compiled her results in a forward-thinking and international mélange of fun from a time in history when ethnic diversity was, at best, tolerated.
Bancroft spread her gospel of physical fitness for boys and girls in an age when strenuous activity was widely considered both unladylike and even deleterious to a woman’s metabolism. Reading through her work, I was struck by how much times have changed. The children of yesteryear apparently possessed powers that make modern adults look like dolts. Bancroft’s game players were assumed to be able to play the piano (or other musical instrument) and also to have the ability to compose short speeches on the spot. Some games even required the players to possess a working knowledge of diverse fields like botany and the classics. (Gasp!)
In addition to quaint anachronisms (girls needed to wear “gymnasium suits” for active recreating), political correctness had not yet been concocted. Thus, a few games from yesteryear were removed for the new edition, e.g., the game “Gypsy”:
One player is selected to be the gypsy, and one for the mother. The other players are children. The gypsy hides while the mother says to her children:
I charge my children every one
To keep good house while I am gone;
You and you, and especially you,
Or else I’ll beat you black and blue.
The mother then goes away and the gypsy comes in, takes away a child, and hides her, repeating this until all of the children are gone. The mother returns and, finding her children gone, searches for them. When all the children are brought back home, the whole family chases the gypsy away.
The above being the exception to the rule, reading Bancroft, I was struck with how she imbued games with dignity and even a moral purpose. Writing a century ago, she confirms for today’s reader that a good physical education sharpens minds, reduces sloth, and really is one of the most desirable goals that our nation’s schools can aspire to. Good on her.
What is your favorite dessert and why?
Apple pie. (My taste buds are very patriotic.)
Bio
Bart King is a longtime middle school teacher who wrote The Big Book of Boy Stuff (2004). Its success (reaching number 5 on Amazon’s overall bestseller list) led Bart to co-author with his five sisters the companion volume, The Big Book of Girl Stuff. Most recently, Bart has been identified as the perpetrator of The Pocket Guide to Mischief, which is either a fun-filled look at skullduggery or a lawsuit waiting to happen. Bart’s website is at http://www.bartking.net
Note to self:
Pancreas needs good squeeze. Must read Bart King books right away.
Hilarious interview. Thank you Bart and Tina!
Posted by: Denise Gruska | May 06, 2008 at 11:57 AM