Back to Featured Interviews >>

MEET LEE WARDLAW
by Bonnie O'Brian

Did you write stories when you were growing up?

Lee Wardlaw

I wrote my first story in second grade. It was called Teena Belle and it was about a seven-year-old girl who looked a lot like me – except she was only one-inch tall. Teena Belle had 14 baby brothers and 14 baby sisters, all in diapers. She ran away from home with her best friend, a grasshopper, to get out of helping her mother with diaper duty. (My youngest brother had just been born. Guess who was asked to help with changing him?)My mother typed up the story and bound it in a bright red folder. My first ‘published’ book! After that, you could almost always find me holed up in my room with paper and pencil. All through elementary school and junior high I wrote poems, plays, songs, stories, even my own magazine– complete with articles, ads and an advice column. I also wrote a silly soap opera with multiple daily episodes that I secretly passed to my best friend during class. (Don’t tell my teacher!)

Was your first book accepted immediately? Or did you experience a number of rejections?

It took ten years to sell ME + MATH = HEADACHE! I received enough rejections to thickly line numerous litter boxes for my cats. I had more success with my first young adult novel, Corey’s Fire. It took ‘only’ three years and nine rejections before that book was accepted for publication. On one of my rejection letters, the editor-in-chief hastily scribbled “Not bad” under his signature. I lived on those two encouraging words for a long time!

Do you focus on fiction or nonfiction? Which do you prefer? Do you find one easier than the other?

I’ve written 25 books and only three of them have been non-fiction. I’m best at writing contemporary fiction for ages 8 to 13 – I have an ear for creating authentic adolescent dialogue – but I love history and I love research, so it’s a fun challenge for me to step outside the fiction box now and then. I prefer writing fiction, though, because you can make stuff up. In non-fiction, you must stick to those pesky facts!

Where do you get your ideas?

Most ideas for my books come from my own life. COREY'S FIRE is based on my family’s experiences after our house burned down in a firestorm that destroyed 200 homes in my neighborhood. The idea for DINOSAUR PIZZA came from my elementary school days, when at lunch no one wanted to share my BMPC’s (bologna-and-mustard-and-potato-chip sandwiches). My brother’s dorky Halloween costume (cowboy hat, boots, holster and underpants) led to my book THE GHOUL BROTHERS. The Hawaiian folk tale PUNIA AND THE KING OF SHARKS was inspired by my love of Hawaii and my surfer-husband’s fear of sharks. And the idea for 101 WAYS TO BUG YOUR TEACHER (which is a novel, not an instruction manual!) came from my five years as an elementary school educator.

Have any of your books earned special recognition?

101 WAYS TO BUG YOUR PARENTS won five state reader’s choice awards, among numerous other honors. It was even translated into Farsi (without my permission, I might add!). COREY’S FIRE and 101 WAYS TO BUG YOUR TEACHER were honored as IRA/CBC Children’s Choice books; the latter was also honored by the NCTE and the Pennsylvania School Librarians. Most of my books have received special recognition. The Reader’s Choice Awards, however, mean the most to me, as they are given by my readers. Both BUBBLEMANIA and COREY'S FIRE have been in several California Collections over the years.

When you do school visits, what question do children ask you most?

There are three: 1. How much money do you make?; 2. Do you know any famous authors?; 3. Where do you get your ideas? I love answering these questions, but it’s even more fun when a child has used extra-strength mental elbow juice to come up with a question I’ve never heard before. One example: Which character that you've created is the least like you, and why?

What do you most want the students to get out of your school visits?

 That reading is fun. There are so many reluctant readers out there – mostly boys – and I want them to catch the reading bug and never let it go! I also want them to realize that I’m just like them; that I, too, felt the same jealousy, anger, confusion, embarrassment, anticipation, excitement, silliness, sadness, etc., that they feel. This means they will be able to relate to my characters. And, perhaps, they’ll realize that if I could become a writer, they can too.

Has anyone ever written you a fan letter that you’d like to share?

"Dear Lee: I really liked your book 101 WAYS TO BUG YOUR PARENTS. It was so good I couldn't put it down. I even read it on the toilet! Your friend, Angie."