Kid Authors: True Tales of Childhood from Famous Writers

By David Stabler

Funny and totally true childhood biographies and full-color illustrations tell the tales from the growing-up years of J. K. Rowling, Beverly Cleary, J. R. R. Tolkien, and 12 other great writers.

Every great author started out as a kid. Before the best sellers, fan clubs, and beloved stories we know today, the world's most celebrated writers had regular-kid problems just like you. Sam Clemens (aka Mark Twain) loved to skip school and make mischief, with his best friend Tom, of course! A young J. R. R. Tolkien was bitten by a huge tarantula—or as he called it, “a spider as big as a dragon.” Toddler Zora Neale Hurston took her first steps when a wild hog entered her house and started chasing her! Kid Authors tells their stories and more—the diverse and inclusive cast that includes Roald Dahl, Beverly Cleary, J. K. Rowling, Jules Verne, Lewis Carroll, Stan Lee—through kid-friendly texts and full-color cartoon illustrations on nearly every page.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Quirk Books
• Release date: Oct 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9781594749889

David Stabler

David Stabler is an author based in Brooklyn, New York. He specializes in reference books covering entertainment, sports, and world history.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Quirk Productions, Inc.

All rights reserved. Except as authorized under U.S. copyright law, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Number: 2016961075

ISBN 9781594749872

Ebook ISBN 9781594749889

Illustrations by Doogie Horner

Illustration coloring by Mario Zucca

Production management by John J. McGurk

Quirk Books

215 Church Street

Philadelphia, PA 19106

quirkbooks.com

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Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

J. R. R. Tolkien Meets a Baboon Tarantula

J. K. Rowling, A Storybook Life

Edgar Allan Poe, Little Orphan Edgar

Sherman Alexie, Off the Reservation

Lewis Carroll, One Tough Nerd

Laura Ingalls Wilder, Heart of a Pioneer

Zora Neale Hurston, Jumping at the Sun

Mark Twain, Bad Boy Makes Good

Langston Hughes, History Lessons

Jules Verne, Castaway for a Day

Roald Dahl, The Boy Who Loved Candy

Stan Lee, The Incredible Reader

Beverly Cleary, Flight of the Blackbird

Lucy Maud Montgomery, The Adventures of Story Girl

Jeff Kinney, Stuck in the Middle

Fun Facts about Famous Authors

Further Reading

Index

About the Authors

Introduction

Everybody loves a good story—and we all know that a well-told story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. This is a book about how the stories of sixteen famous authors began.

Some of them knew from very early on that they were going to be writers. Edgar Allan Poe, the legendary author of The Raven and The Tell-Tale Heart, used to recite poetry and dress up as a ghost to frighten grown-ups at parties.

And the poet Langston Hughes spent hours in his local library, reading collections of mythology, verse, and African American history.

Other kid authors had to overcome obstacles on the road to success. Laura Ingalls Wilder, the writer of Little House on the Prairie, grew up on the frontier, where she faced harsh winters and attacks by locusts.

And then there is J. K. Rowling. Long before she wrote the best-selling Harry Potter novels, she was just another kid in middle school trying to make decent grades and fend off bullies. Believe it or not, she often found herself getting into fights! She took comfort in writing stories about feisty heroines who fought back against evil villains.

And finally we have Jeff Kinney, whose most formidable foes were his three siblings. Every morning, Jeff and his siblings found themselves in a heated competition to determine who would use the bathroom first. Jeff took the wimpy moments of his childhood and turned them into Diary of a Wimpy Kid, one of the most successful children’s book series of all time.

We all have a story to tell, and whether or not you grow up to become a great writer, all those stories start in the same place: childhood. Some kids are born storytellers, others learned to take their unique experiences and turn them into tales that would entertain and inspire. We know how their stories ended, but how much do you really know about how their stories began? We’re going back to the beginning to find out!

It started with a monkey invasion, continued with a baby kidnapping, and ended with a spider attack. J. R. R. Tolkien’s time in South Africa was brief, but it left him with vivid memories to last a lifetime.

If you’ve ever read The Lord of the Rings, you may know about Shelob, the giant evil spider who guards the entrance to Mordor. But did you know there was a real spider in Tolkien’s life—and that it nearly put an end to the great storyteller’s career before it even began?

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien—or Ronald, as he was called—was born in Bloemfontein, the capital of the South African province then known as the Orange Free State. But Ronald always thought of himself as English. His parents, Arthur and Mabel Tolkien, had moved to South Africa from England only the year before, after Arthur got a job at a bank.

Ronald’s father was often away on business, leaving his son in the care of his mother and servants. The first summer Ronald spent in his new hometown was one of the hottest that anyone could remember. As a baby, Ronald had to wear frilly white dresses—called pinafores—to keep cool. In letters to relatives, his mother boasted that he looked like an elf or a fairy.

Even worse than the heat were the bugs and beasts. Flies buzzed about constantly, and locusts devoured crops in the fields. A family of wild monkeys lived next door. One day, a monkey vaulted the fence and rampaged through the Tolkiens’ garden, shredding three of Ronald’s pinafores hanging on the clothesline.

Then, to make matters even worse, baby Ronald got kidnapped!

Well, sort of. Some might say he was just borrowed for a while. Apparently, a servant named Isaak was so taken by the adorable Tolkien infant that he took Ronald to show him to the people of his village.

After spending the night with Isaak and his family, Ronald was back in his crib the next morning, unharmed. Although he always claimed he had no memory of the incident, as an adult, J. R. R. Tolkien often wrote about characters who get captured or kidnapped.

One childhood memory did stick with Ronald forever. You could even say that it left quite an impression on him…with its teeth.

One very hot summer day, as he was just learning to walk, Ronald was strolling through the garden when he stumbled on a hairy, black, eight-legged creature the size of a dinner plate. Ronald had no idea what it was, but it looked mean. He would later learn that it was called the Hercules Baboon Tarantula and it was one of the largest, heaviest, and rarest spiders in the world.

Baboon tarantulas are usually not aggressive, but they will defend themselves if they feel threatened—as Ronald soon found out. In his haste to back away, he startled the critter. It

Reviews for Kid Authors

[libstaff2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A collection of mini bios of famous authors as children and their paths to writing. This is part of a wonderful series that's great for middle grades. There are about 15 authors included, from different backgrounds and decades, contemporary ones too. I loved the one about Stan Lee. Fun illustrations and a short section of additional introductions to more writers at the end.Net Galley Feedback

[debnance_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Do you love to hear the backstories of people? Do you like to find out about the stories in people's lives that other biographies leave out? Are you a person who likes to see the human side of celebrities?That's me. And this is the book for you. Kid Authors shares stories about the divorce of the parents of poet Langston Hughes, Sherman Alexie's hydrocephalus, and Roald Dahl's love affair with candy. All the stories you didn't know you wanted to know.

[aliceap-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

First of all, HUGE props to the illustrator, Doogie Horner, for some of the most amazing illustrations I've seen in quite some time. I'd go so far as to say they would make truly excellent bookmarks. *hint hint* Kid Authors: True Tales of Childhood from Famous Writers by David Stabler is a collection of short biographies of famous authors covering their childhood and why they wanted to become authors. Up front I need to make a few critical remarks. While this was written for a child audience, I think it would be beneficial if some of the terms were defined either in a side panel or at the back in a glossary. Two good examples: integration and abolitionist. I read a few passages to some of the kids at the library and some terms that seem obvious to an adult haven't yet been learned by kids in upper elementary school. There were also some really glaring grammatical mistakes which gave the impression this was a rushed printing job. At one point, the word should have been 'real' and instead it was 'read' which of course has a totally different meaning. If this is meant to be a nonfiction biographical resource for children it should be held to a higher standard. I did like how there were additional facts and a suggested list of more books to read at the back. My overall impression is that it's a cute book which serves as a decent introduction for kids to famous authors (and biographies in general). I know there are other books in this series so I'm hopeful the quality has improved in these later volumes. :-) 5/10