Shelf: You’ve written books for kids as well as a number of mysteries and thrillers for adults. What does writing for middle readers allow you to do or explore that writing for adults does not? Grabenstein: I find that I get to use more of my imagination when I’m writing for Middle Grades readers. That said, I borrow the pacing, cliffhangers, and twists of my adult mysteries and thrillers to keep kids burning through the pages. I suspect this is why my books have done so well with reluctant readers. The nicest e-mails I receive are from parents who tell me that their son or daughter wasn’t a reader until they picked up one of my books and couldn’t put it down. Also, at book signings, kids sometimes hug your book while they wait on line for you to sign it. Very few adults are book huggers. Shelf: Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library is a celebration of literature and libraries and even the Dewey Decimal System. Did you frequent the library as a kid, and what were some of your favorite books that you discovered there? Grabenstein: Unfortunately, in my own life, the opposite is true. After being born in Buffalo, NY my family moved to a part of Tennessee where, at the time, libraries and books and even education weren’t celebrated very much. I don’t think our small town even had a public library. At school, our library wasn’t considered an important part of the learning experience. Visiting schools and public libraries for the past five years to talk about my Haunted Mystery series books, I have been extremely impressed by the libraries and librarians that are out there helping young minds find books to devour. Often, the favorite part of my school visit day is early in the morning, drinking coffee with the librarians, listening to them interacting with the eager kids who come through the door at 8 a.m. hungry for a new book to read. “Oh, if you liked X, you’ll love Z,” they say. And I ask myself, where were these libraries and librarians when I was a kid? So, right now I’m doing a lot of remedial reading, getting caught up on all the classics like Bud, Not Buddy that I missed growing up. It was really thinking about my own childhood without a strong library that inspired Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library. I was more like [the book’s main character] Kyle and the other eleven 12-year-olds who have gone their whole life without a library. And, even though I’m older than most middle schoolers, the nice librarians I meet are always recommending good books for me to read! UNBOUND
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