1. What draws you to write for young readers?
Young people are far more open to literary structural challenges (my favorite!) and are more open minded and curious about the world than adults. I am an advocate for young people, so it's only natural I write for them. I think the world is confusing and a lot of adults lie. I want to be an adult who does not lie, but instead invites robust conversation and models the maturity of being able to change one's mind and grow.
2. Please tell us about Attack of the Black Rectangles and why you feel this book is an important read now.
Here's the long answer:
ATTACK OF THE BLACK RECTANGLES was an inevitable book for me to write. It’s about a lot of things, but mostly, it’s about the truth. If you know me, and you know my work, then you know I’m always stumbling over the truth. And I keep telling it. This time, it comes through the narration of a cool kid named Mac Delaney.
Mac and his best friends Denis and Marci all land in Ms. Laura Samuel Sett’s sixth grade classroom for their last year at Independence North Elementary school. It’s part exciting—because Ms. Sett’s class is like college and students can choose the topics they work on more than they could in earlier years of school—and part scary—because Ms. Laura Samuel Sett has a reputation for being a real stickler for rules. In fact, in their town, there are a lot of rules. Dress codes, curfews, junk food bans, town ordinances, and once their school year starts, censorship.
As Mac and his friends try to figure out why the school doesn’t want them to read the words that are crossed out by black rectangles in their lit circle book, Mac’s inner life becomes more complicated. He’s been putting black rectangles over his feelings about his dad, who moved out when Mac was eight and is difficult to deal with.
He’s been putting black rectangles over things he wants to say during history class because adults don’t seem to like hearing the truth that’s already written down in history books!
He’s been putting black rectangles over his growing feelings for Marci, which are weird!
And mostly, he feels like with all these black rectangles in his life—all this hiding in shame—he is slowly finding himself pretending nothing is wrong when things are totally wrong…which is what most of the adults around him model every day.
As his lit circle group solves the mystery of the black rectangles in their books, Mac solves the mystery of the black rectangles in his life. He’s tired of being the sensible one in the room when the room is filled with parents, teachers, leaders, school board members, and principals. Will it really be three twelve-year-old kids who teach the town that there is value in truthful words and there is value in sharing them? For me, this story starts early in 2018 when my son came home from school with his lit circle book and yelled up the stairs to me in my office, “Hey mom why are there words crossed out in my book?” and being the trusting person I am, I said, “Oh, someone must have been silly and crossed some words out. Is it pen or pencil?” And he said, “It’s Sharpie and all of our books have the same parts crossed out. We compared.” And I said, “Bring that book to me right now.” Inside of ten seconds of asking on Facebook if anyone had a copy of The Devil’s Arithmetic nearby, an old friend in Rochester said yes, and what did I need? I posted two pictures of the censored parts.
And we discovered what the "dangerous" words were.
It took me months to find out who the person censoring the books was, and why. Though we all know the why. The why is always the same. To quote Marci from the book:
“They’re afraid of the ideas, Mac. You know. Same as the watchdogs for candy and girls’ knees. Some people just think everyone should think like them. Or be like them.”
Lying to children is not new. We have all been lied to, manipulated, de-educated, and made purposefully ignorant of a great many things—almost always with the reasoning that it was for our own good.
I’m here to counter that argument.
Emotions like shame are often left out of the conversation because adults have too much of it. I am on a lifelong mission to talk about shame because I believe it’s the reason for a great many tragedies, especially lying to children. Today I challenge you to stop pretending everything is fine when it isn’t. Reject the weird myth forced onto us—that a good life is uncomplicated and without villains.
I wrote Mac’s story because I want young people to feel like the smart, strong, capable human beings they are. I want them to challenge any system that aims to shut them up and shut them out—and remind the adults in the room that putting black rectangles over things—whether those things are words, feelings, or facts—doesn’t really work.
3. What topics/themes do you feel drawn to explore next?
I will continue to write about the truth. About everything. Because kids deserve that. And books are a safe and healthy way to start discussions at home or wherever the truth is needed.
4. Any message to share with young creators (and teachers sharing/using your books in their classrooms)?
Young creators! Make art and tell the truth. Find a new favorite artist or writer or person from history every month and learn about them! Make sure those people are from all over the world! Research a thing you never heard of before. Research something that you heard of but it makes you mad or sad. Fact check yourself often! Don't be afraid to change your mind! And when you get old enough to volunteer in your community, do that. You will never meet the people you will meet volunteering anywhere else.
Teachers: Thank you for sharing my work with students! If you need any activity or reading guides, go to my website resource page: https://www.as-king.com/resources. If ever you want me to zoom into your classroom to talk books or writing, I do that. I also visit whole schools to talk about life stuff, being creative, plastic pollution (Me and Marvin Gardens FTW), intellectual freedom, and, if a school is in need of a compassionate hour about healing and trauma due to community grief or any other hard thing, I do that, too. <3 Stay strong out there, and keep sharing great books!
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