C10
S
K Eids More than 250 million books by John Grisham have been printed worldwide. 2010 SUMMER BOOK CLUB He has a big decision to make
“Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer,” by John Grisham Published by Dutton Children’s Books 263 pages Recommended for ages 9 to 12
with every clerk and cop who walks the halls. The knowledge he has gained in this environment proves useful at school, where kids think of Theo as the local lawyer. Classmates come to him with their troubles — or their parents’ — and Theo often has a great nugget of advice that solves the problem. But soon Theo learns that knowing too much can
T
create its own headaches — and danger. A big murder trial going on in Judge Gantry’s
courtroom is the talk of the town, and Theo is fol- lowing it closely. When the courtroom is too crowd- ed for him to get in after school, Theo watches from a secret hiding place, through a crack in the ceiling. When a friend tells Theo his cousin witnessed the murder, Theo doesn’t know what to do. Theo prom- ises his friend he won’t tell anyone (the child wit- ness is an illegal immigrant and is afraid to speak publicly), but he knows he has information that could dramatically affect the outcome of the trial. Watching Theo deal with this situation will feel familiar to any kid who has had to make a difficult decision about whether to tell an adult something important. But even kids who’ve never dealt with such a sticky issue will find Theo’s dilemma interest- ing. You won’t find the kinds of physical dangers and action-packed sequences you’d find in a Rick Riordan book, but the basic story should keep you turning the pages. You also might learn something about the law. Author Grisham has written numerous legal thril- lers for adults. He’s also a lawyer, so he peppers his story with tidbits of information about how our ju- dicial system works.
—Margaret Webb Pressler Cartoonist’s help is returned, gratefully by Michael Cavna Some people scoff at professional gen-
erosity. Nice guys finish last, they jeer, and the upstart you give a boost to now probably won’t remember you when he scampers across your skull on his scur- ried way to the top. Those smirking cynics haven’t heard
about Jeff Kinney and Lincoln Peirce. These two talented men were pursu- ing their cartooning dreams nearly two decades ago when their creative connec- tion was sparked through handwritten — and hand-drawn — correspondence. It was the early ’90s, and Kinney was an aspiring cartoonist at the University of Maryland, as well as a big fan of the comic strip “Big Nate,” which he read in The Post. Kinney wanted advice on how to break into the business, so he wrote several cartoonists, including Peirce, cre- ator of the recently syndicated “Big Nate.” Up in New Hampshire, Peirce was struck by Kinney’s outreach. “His letter was so different from other letters,” Peirce recalls. “And not just because it was five to six pages long. Even early on, he was very talented and very ambi-
Lincoln Peirce and “Big Nate,” left, and protege Jeff Kinney and his “Wimpy Kid.” DOMINIC BRACCO II FOR THE
JESSICA GANDOLF WASHINGTON POST
tious.” Instead of eyeing him warily, Peirce did the professionally generous thing: “I wrote him back.” Kinney the college cartoonist was thrilled. “It was a handwritten letter, which included many drawings that pro- vided guidance on how I could improve my prospects,” he recounts. For more than two years, mentor and student exchanged handwritten and hand-drawn insights into their craft. And each time Kinney replied to Peirce, he made sure to write: “Thank you so much for the advice and help you’ve giv- en me — and someday, I hope I can pay you back in some fashion.” Then, as happens, “years went by and we lost touch,” Peirce says.
After college, Kinney spent a while try- ing to syndicate his cartoon, “Igdoof,” which he’d started at the school’s Dia- mondback newspaper. No takers, so fi- nally “I took a different path,” says Kin- ney. “Along the way, I had a number of jobs, including the one I’ve had for about 10 years as a designer and game devel- oper for Pearson.” It was at that online educational com-
pany that Kinney helped develop Pop-
tropica.com, a virtual world for children. It launched in 2007 — and exploded. It now calls itself the most popular kids’ site on the Web, with 130million fans. It was also in 2007 that Kinney — hav- ing been discovered at a New York com- ics convention — debuted his book, “Dia- ry of a Wimpy Kid.” It exploded, too. The
Join the club!
To sign up for the KidsPost Summer Book Club, have a parent or guardian e-mail your name, age, address and phone number to
kidspost@washpost.com.
Please put “summer book club” in the subject field. You can also mail the information to KidsPost, The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071. We will send you a bookmark and publish your name in a special edition of KidsPost at the end of the summer. If your parents don’t want your name printed in the paper, they need to tell us that. The book club is open to children ages 6 to 13.
Coming next week
“Chasing Orion,” by Kathryn Lasky. The author of the “Guardians of Ga’hoole” series writes a story set in Indiana in the 1950s. Age 9 and older.
heo Boone is only 13, but he loves the law. His parents are lawyers, and Theo has grown up in and around the courthouse, where over the years he has become friends
You might also like . . .
“Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery,” by Deborah Howe and James Howe. This hilarious mystery tries to determine whether the Monroe family’s cute adopted bunny is a vampire. Age 7 and older.
“Encyclopedia Brown” series, by Donald J. Sobol. Try to solve the cases yourself as 10-year-old Leroy, a boy genius, keeps stumbling into mysteries he always finds a way to crack. Age 7 and older.
KLMNO FRAZZ
WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2010 JEF MALLETT
TODAY: Partly sunny and hot
HIGH LOW 100 78
ILLUSTRATION BY WILLIAM HELLIER, 8, BURKE
TODAY’S NEWS
RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS
Boiling potatoes helps them con- duct electricity, scientists found.
Should I eat that potato or read by its light?
It’s a classic kid’s science proj- ect: Make a battery out of a pota- to. Now, researchers have found a way to make a powerful potato battery that could provide elec- tricity to millions of people in countries that don’t have power for such basic needs as lights. The secret: Boil the potato. The principle is the same as the ex- periment you may have done. Put zinc and copper electrodes into a potato. Electric current is created as zinc loses electrons and copper gains them. But what scientists at Israel’s
Hebrew University and the Uni- versity of California discovered is that if a potato has been boiled, the electricity production in- creases, allowing the battery to work for days or weeks. Because potatoes are grown in 130 countries, the discovery could help many poor nations.
“Wimpy Kid” series has sold in the mil- lions, spawned book tours and a major motion picture this year and — as most any fifth-grader can tell you — cata- pulted Kinney to rock-god popularity among the playground set. Kinney, 39, had ridden a booster rock-
et of talent to the top — and promptly did not forget his long-ago mentor and friend, as well as his handwritten hope. Out of the blue, Peirce heard from Kin-
ney a couple of years ago. “Jeff e-mailed me from a book tour to say he would be traveling up my way,” says Peirce, 46. Peirce’s response: “Book tour?! What
have you been up to?” “I was not aware of the ‘Wimpy Kid’
books,” says Peirce, noting that his chil- dren are ages 16 and 13, the younger just missing the “Wimpy Kid’s” demographic sweet spot. The two caught up. For more than 15 years, Peirce had experienced steady though not wild success. “I always con- sidered ‘Big Nate’ a success or I wouldn’t have kept doing it,” Peirce says. “But I still couldn’t land a major book deal.” But Kinney and his boss, Jess Brallier, “realized what a powerful publishing platform we had in Poptropica,” Kinney says. “We decided to dedicate ourselves to putting great content in front of kids, and I immediately thought of ‘Big Nate.’ I’ve always thought ‘Big Nate’ deserved a bigger audience, and it was exciting to
think that we could bring the comic to millions of kids.” On Valentine’s Day last year, Poptrop- ica launched “Big Nate Island,” the inter- active world of sixth-grader Nate Wright and his adventures as a “self-described genius” and “all-time record-holder for detentions in school history.” Kids went wild. “All I remember is that
Jeff called me after the first 48 hours and said: ‘You crashed the server,’ ” Peirce re- calls. “It was their biggest launch by 20 percent.” The sudden online popularity of “Big
Nate” led to Peirce’s long-sought major book deal, with no less than Harp- erCollins. “Big Nate: In a Class by Him- self” just spent 11 straight weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. “I kept all his letters and pulled them out a couple of months ago,” Peirce says. He reread Kinney’s prescient words: “ ‘Thank you so much for the advice and help you’ve given me — and some- day, I hope I can pay you back in some fashion.’ ” Translation: “Nice guys can finish
first.” “My advice is,” Peirce jokes, “when picking someone to mentor, choose someone who will go on to found a huge publishing empire.”
And, of course, someone who will re- member you when that happens.
cavnam@washpost.com
‘One of the world’s
coolest museums.’ — Sunday Times, London
THROUGH SEPT. 6
Sponsored by
Up to 10 kids free with each paid adult admission. For kids 18 and under. Family Fun Deal details at
newseum.org.
Be There. 555 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20001 |
newseum.org
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52