Surviving Summer Camp In James Patterson's 'Middle School'
On "The Booger-Eater" and childhood bullying
"Originally I wanted to call this Summer of the Booger-Eater ... 'The Booger-Eater' is an important character in here in that he's sort of Rafe's first real friend.
" ... It's a big deal to me, beyond physical bullying, verbal bullying. ... With this kid, you know, he was nicknamed 'The Booger-Eater' when he was 3 or 4 years old, and it stuck with him. And that happens to kids. They kind of get a caricature and it's very hard for them to get away from it."
On whether writing for young readers requires "a certain number of flatulence jokes"
"I mostly have stayed away from it, but I just couldn't resist it. It just seemed to fit into a summer camp situation. Generally I don't try to take the easy way out with humor, but there is a 'Bombardier' in there, and it's pretty funny, I think."
On why reading is important for young people
"What I'm really addicted to is getting people to understand that if their kids aren't competent readers coming out of middle school, it's really going to be hard for them in high school. They're going to have trouble getting through. Kids don't read as much as you'd like them to, just in terms of seeing the world from different perspectives. I mean, that's the great thing about books, still. Here's television, here are the movies, and it's pretty limited in terms of the perspectives. But books, it's still, there's so many different ways to look at life, so many different stories, and books are still the best place to get that kind of diversity."
James Patterson On NPR
You Must Read This
The Unexamined Life Examined In 'Mrs. Bridge'