Q&A with J.T. Petty
A conversation with J.T. Petty
Author of The Clemency Pogue Series & The Squampkin Patch: A Nasselrogt Adventure
Q: Have you read a lot of children's literature?
A: I've read a lot. I've always sort of considered children's books more of a genre than a definition of audience. You're never too old to go back and read that stuff.
Q: What were you reading as a kid?
A: Roald Dahl. I remember reading a lot of Pinkwater. I remember we had a book of Greek myths that we read over and over again. And we made up stories a lot. I dedicated Squampkin Patch to my dad, because he was constantly telling us about monsters. He lived in Rochester, New York, for a while, and he always told us that he had brought this monster back with him from Rochester. It lived in the basement, and what the monster would do is reach down your throat and pull you inside out.
Q: Who are your favorite children's authors?
A: Recently, probably Philip Pullman-he's unbelievably brilliant. Hans Christian Andersen, when you're actually reading his original work, is amazing. The original Little Mermaid-where every step she takes is like walking on broken glass-is just horrifying, but so affecting. And, of course, Roald Dahl. I've also been reading some Garth Nix recently, and I think Terry Pratchett is pretty great. He did this book, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. It was fantastic.
Q: When did you start the Clemency Pogue series?
A: A couple years before I sent it to anybody to be published. I wrote it while I was doing the video games. I'd sketched out the idea for it probably when I was 20 or 21, but then I came back and looked at it more seriously and actually wrote the thing and revised it and all of that while I was working on Splinter Cell. It was such a Tom Clancy universe-all testosterone and weapons and technophilia-that it was nice that I could spend all day writing that and then come home and write about fairies and hobgoblins and exercise some other parts of my brain.
Q: Would you call yourself a social hermit?
A: I get out. But, yeah, I could live in my head and control all of these little worlds all the time. I'm huge into universe building. I think that's why I was kind of good at writing video games, because I like presenting all of these ingredients that fit together and mesh and make a separate world. Take the Clemency Pogue universe-each book develops it further, adds more rules, more elements. But they all have to work within the system.
Q: Do you do a treatment before writing?
A: Yes, but I try not to follow it too closely-just because I want to stay interested. Writing should be sort of like exploring territories, and if you're just filling in ingredients around a path that you already know, it gets dull fast. I can do enough dull writing for Hollywood. I would rather keep the kids' books fun.
Q: Tell us about your book.
A: The Squampkin Patch is like Stephen King for kids. It's essentially a monster story. The guy (David Friend) who did the concept art for the Clemency Pogue film adaptation did the cover, and he also did a flip book. So the book itself is animated; as you flip through it, you get to see one of the squampkins grow.
The story revolves around a brother and sister who lose their parents and end up living in an abandoned house, where they discover that the pumpkin patch in front of it is supernaturally evil. There are these little monsters that look like pumpkins and grow like pumpkins, but they're not pumpkins. I'm big into pumpkins.
Q: You are?
A: Yeah, I have a large interest in pumpkins. Writing The Squampkin Patch was partly an excuse to let me make all of my experiments in pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies tax-deductible.
Q: Do you cook with pumpkin?
A: I do a lot of cooking with pumpkins. One of the main villains in Squampkin Patch is this lunatic pastry chef who's developing a recipe for pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies-something I'm really interested in. Pumpkin and chocolate is an insanely great, interesting, unappreciated flavor combination.
Q: They really go together?
A: It's fantastic.
Q: Is it your own original recipe?
A: Yeah. Through the course of the story, this crazy chef starts out trying to figure out how to make pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies and then gets involved in the winter squash underground, and it sort of spirals into death and madness. But as he's going along, he actually develops this recipe for pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies that works pretty good.
Contributor: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
For further information about J.T. Petty, please visit her website www.pettyofficial.com
Reviews
Clemency Pogue, Fairy KillerJ.T. Petty
Illustrated by Will Davis
Clemency Pogue and her parents love stories: telling them and hearing them. So it's no surprise that when Clemency is faced with an evil fairy, she knows exactly what to do. "I don't believe in fairies!" she shouts. However, one shout only seems to enrage the fairy; yells two and three seem to slow her down a bit, and it actually takes six invocations to kill the fairy once and for all. But Clemency soon finds out that along with the "bad" fairy she killed three additional "bads" and three "goods." With the grudging help of a hobgoblin named Chaphesmeeso, Clemency begins her quest to bring the six fairies she unwittingly killed back to life. Traveling around the world, Clemency and Chapesmeeso have to figure out each fairy's true name in order to bring each back (or at least, to have a choice in which ones to bring back). Clemency understands the urgency in bringing back the Tooth Fairy and the Fairy of non-invasive surgery; inevitably, though, she also has to bring back the problem fairies, including the one who bedeviled her in the first place. Clemency's final interaction with Tinkasinge, the bad fairy, is a clever blend of wit and humor. The comic elements of the book are further enhanced by the wonderful pencil illustrations from Will Davis. This book is a lot of fun to read, and I also liked its attention to the pure joy of storytelling and how knowing stories can help one out in difficult situations. 2005, Simon & Schuster, $9.95. Ages 8 to 12. Reviewer: Jean Boreen, Ph.D. (Children's Literature).
This whimsical tale of good and evil fairies led one young girl, Clemency Pogue, on an adventure where brain power outmaneuvered bronze. It started out when her dear father told her the tale of Peter Pan. How was Clemency to know that the simple five words spoken in the story about fairies would cause a catastrophe when all she wanted was to rid herself of a pesky fairy? This nasty fairy recreated itself into a biting insect that refused to die. Clemency tried everything until she found herself hanging from a cliff. When Clemency heard the story about how fairies would come back to life if only children would believe, she got an idea: If she did not believe in fairies, would this cause the opposite effect? Without much thought, Clemency shouted to the heavens and the events that followed almost destroyed fairy tales forever. How will Clemency set this magical world right without any lasting effects? What a fun and original tale that JT Perry has brought to life. The twist and turns of the story create magical events that will entertain both girls and boys. The prologue threw me for a minor loop and left me puzzled about where this story would go and whether I would like it. I am glad that I kept reading and found Clemency an adorable character that put a smile on my face. Part of the "Clemency Pogue" series. 2005, Simon & Schuster Books, $9.95. Ages 9 to 12. Reviewer: Julia Beiker (Children's Literature).
Best Books:
Childrens' Choices, 2006; International Reading Association; United States
ISBN: 0-689-87236-4
ISBN: 978-0-689-87236-5
The Squampkin Patch: A Nasselrogt AdventureJ.T. Petty
Poor Milton and Chloe Nasselrogt. They think their parents are dead, and they have only just managed to escape from the Urchin House Orphanage (a front for a zipper factory, staffed by orphans who spend long hours "gluing zipper teeth one by one onto strips of plasticky fabric"). But hot on their heels is its evil director, the big-nostriled Yon Kinsky Kozinsky Porifera. Milton and Chloe stumble upon the house of a candy maker who has gone strangely missing, and eventually discover there is something even more sinister after them than Mr. Porifera--the rustling pumpkin patch right outside their front door. And, gads, it is growing (the simple line illustrations at the bottom of the pages capture this beautifully). Of course, they do not know the patch is to be feared until it develops a yearning for eight-year-old Chloe, kidnaps her, and hides her deep underground. Can Milton save Chloe in time? Will Porifera turn out to be more friend than foe? And could it be that Mr. and Mrs. Nasselrogt are very much alive and pining for the safe return of their missing children? Kudos to Petty: his raucous read has everything middle grade readers yearn for--fanciful scenarios, funny-sounding words, suspense, and kids fixing their own screw-ups. 2006, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, $15.95. Ages 9 to 14. Reviewer: Sheri Bell-Rehwoldt (Children's Literature).
ISBN: 1-416-90274-0
ISBN: 978-1-416-90274-4
Added 10/26/06
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