It would have been too cute if my first signing at a supermarket was for Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman: supermarket and Superman, Wegmans and Nobleman (and Superman again).
But on 6/17/11, I appeared at the Wegmans in Sterling, VA, for 365 Things to Do Before You Grow Up, which I’d pitched the grocery chain as a register impulse buy.The store prepared a great setup for the event and even used my suggested sign wording verbatim (though it looks a lot wordier on the sign than it did on my screen):
The event had a few things going for it:- It was deliberately scheduled just prior to the store’s popular weekly movie night.
- The book is a portable, affordable parental secret weapon on summer road trips.
But the event had much going against it:- It was a book signing.
- It was on a Friday night, when people typically don’t do their weekly food shopping.
- It was at a supermarket, where people typically don’t go for book signings.
- It was on the second floor of a supermarket, where people typically don’t go period.
- It was a sunny summer evening, when people often prefer to be outside.
- I did not write Fancy Nancy.
And sure enough, the turnout was not outstanding. I’d planned to run two food-related activities from the book with the kids, but there were never enough at any one time to do them.The first activity: #46—Learn to Use Chopsticks. I converted this to a game: race to see who can be the first to transfer 10 grapes from one plate to another…with chopsticks. So I laid out all this for nothing:
The second activity: #250—Run a Taste Test. The store generously provided four types of food that many kids don’t regularly eat (or have never even tried): mangoes, dates, blackberries, and kiwis. I was going to blindfold competitors and see who would be able to identify more of them by taste only. This, of course, would double as a mini-lesson in healthy eating, but by making it a game with prizes at stake, kids wouldn’t be as alert to that.(Given that it was summer and that we were inside, I couldn’t do my favorite activity from the book, #288—Go Sled Bowling.)One boy asked me to sign a book while his mother was not right next to him (though she had given permission). Moments later, she came over to my table, laughing. She said her son’s name is Nathan, not Antonio, which is who he’d asked me to sign it to. Turns out Antonio is the name of Nathan’s favorite character at the moment (a Power Ranger, I think?). I offered to do my best to fix it, but she laughed again and said it’ll be a funny memory.Wegmans was wonderful to take a chance on this, especially since books are not their primary focus. They even invited me back for the fall, when attendance for such things tends to be better.In the end, I considered the event to be a success: Wegmans kindly asked me to sign every copy of the book they’d ordered. 
Most of the real estate Bill Finger gets on this blog is devoted to his substantial contributions to the Batman mythos. Especially appropriate on this Father's Day, it's worth noting Bill was also the father (co-father, technically) of Green Lantern.On 6/17/11, the first Green Lantern movie opened. To the general public, that DC Comics superhero is far less well known than Batman, but comics people know that Green Lantern is one of DC's "big seven" (along with Superman, Wonder Woman, Robin, Aquaman, Flash, and, of course, Batman himself). I haven't yet seen the movie but have seen multiple sites that confirm what I suspected: Bill's name (in fact, no creator's name) appears in the Green Lantern credits.Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool summarized it well and struck the right tone. An excerpt:No mention of the original Green Lantern creator, Marty Nodell, or its writer, Bill Finger.
No mention of those who created the Hal Jordan Green Lantern, John Broome and Gil Kane. Who created Sinestro, the Green Lantern Corps, Hector Hammond and Carol Ferris.
No mention of Alfred Bester, the writer who created the Green Lantern oath, so prominent in the film.
There is mention of Geoff Johns as a co-producer. And it is his books that get seen at the end of the movie, with a name credit for him.
Just not for the people who actually created the characters.
Now there is no legal necessity for DC and Warners to list their names in the movie. But it does seem jarring that in a movie that cost hundreds of millions, about someone doing the right thing, no matter how difficult, nobody could find a way to solve this one.
They did for The Losers.
One thing you don’t expect before you become a published writer: how often you’re asked for advice on how to become a published writer. And often the person asking is simply afraid to start trying.If someone asks me via e-mail, whether friend, friend-of-friend, or stranger, I am happy to weigh in. Several years ago, I saved one particularly thorough answer consisting of practical steps that have worked for me; I (sometimes tweak and) simply forward it.But if someone asks me in person, the answer will vary depending on the circumstances. I think my favorite response, however, is a variation of this:Almost no obstacles stand between you and writing. If you want to be a musician/singer, you need to invest in the instrument of your choice (and if it’s piano or double bass, more space!), need to rent studio time, and/or need to get out there and play to often small, most likely drunk crowds for nights on end.If you want to be an actor, you have to wait in long lines with your competition to get just a minute or two in front of a casting director and hope that your talent overrides your anxiety.If you want to be a doctor or an astronaut, you better be in training already.But if you want to be a writer, remember that you already are. We all are, to an extent. We all learned to write in school, and while that doesn’t mean we all are good at it, it does mean we all have at least a little head start. No one has to see. No one has to know. No one will judge you to your face.You don’t need money. You don’t need space. You don’t need contacts. (Talent trumps all.) You don’t even need a diploma. (But get one anyway.)All you do need is an idea (free and infinite), a corner to write in, a computer to write on (you can start longhand but eventually you will need to type it up), and the discipline to put them all together. In other words, all you need is what you probably already have right there in front of you right now.Except, perhaps, discipline. So if you don’t feel that you are particularly disciplined, then let’s recast it. Are you passionate? Not everyone has discipline, but most of us have passion for something. And people who want to write are usually passionate about wanting to write but may be intimidated about taking that first step. Well, passion is powerful enough to squelch your notion that you’re not disciplined enough to write. Don’t stand in its way. If you do, you’re standing between the rest of us—your potential readers—and a great story. Actually, two great stories. The story you write.
And the story of what finally moved you to write it.
A young woman whose family I have known since she was a tiny girl emailed the following (and then kindly gave me permission to share it here):
I recently graduated high school. Thursday night my fellow graduates and I went to "Grad Nite" at Six Flags Magic Mountain. I was looking through Superman and Batman capes when I noticed something familiar at the front counter: your book! I screeched excitedly and called my friends over, pointing to Boys of Steel as I explained that I knew the author. It was really great to see one of your books at the very front of a store, on display, and to know that I had the same book at home, had read it cover to cover multiple times already, and even had met the author!
Photo courtesy of Braden E (via Flickr).
This is especially rewarding for me for three reasons: - Because Six Flags is home to various Superman rides including a roller coaster with the zippy name "Escape from Krypton" (pictured above), I personally pitched them Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman several months before it was published in 2008...although even I thought it unlikely that an amusement park shop would agree to carry a hardcover nonfiction book.
- Three summers later, the book is still available at Six Flags! (Then again, since publisher-to-nonbook-retailer sales are typically nonreturnable, perhaps that is a copy from the original order three years ago that has yet to sell...)
- The book is on display at the front of the store. (Then again, if it is a copy from three years ago, they've got to do whatever it takes to move that thing.)
And also, Six Flags sells capes? Next they've got to create a coaster on which you can wear one...
In the March-April 2011 The Horn Book, author Susan Campbell Bartoletti writes “I Heart My Public Library, but public libraries rarely have the authoritative texts that extreme research requires.”I’m glad she stuck that “rarely” in there, because I once proved this wrong, and in a way that felt significant to me. While researching Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman in Cleveland, the city where the story took place, I had two primary goals, both for illustrator reference: take photos of the relevant locations that were still standing and find archival photos of the ones that weren’t. In particular, I wanted to find what would be the first known photo of the building in which original Superman artist Joe Shuster lived.My plan: first check the Western Reserve Historical Society, then the Cleveland State University archives, and finally the Cleveland Public Library. In other words, go from specific to general. Like Susan, I had the lowest expectation for the library. It was not like I could walk in there and say “Do you have a photo of Joe Shuster’s apartment building from 1934?” For starters, the staffer (not a historian) would most likely say “Who’s Joe Shuster?” But more to the point, it’s not the kind of thing categorized individually like that. If such a photo hadn’t been in a book (and probably even if it had), it would be up to me to do the legwork.Yet as the post hyperlinked above explains, I did find a photo of the building, and I found it at the library. This photo that had been hiding in plain sight at the public library led to a dedication of the previously unmarked site only a year after I publicized it.Of course the offerings of public libraries vary, but in many cases, there is unexpected gold to be found there.
To research Bill Finger, uncredited co-creator and visual mastermind behind Batman, the first person I tracked down was Bill’s longtime friend and writing partner, Charles Sinclair.
And although I would end up contacting more than 200 others after Charles, he remained one of my most valuable sources, not to mention one of the most generous.He knew Bill outside of comics. He knew Bill outside of work in general. At one point, he and Bill were roommates. And fortunately for me, his memory seemed remarkably vivid for an 82-year-old (at the time, which was 2006).Thanks to Charles, I found Bill’s second wife, whom almost nobody else knew about. Thanks to Charles, I learned the details surrounding Bill’s death, the true story of which literally nobody else I contacted knew about. Thanks to Charles, I’m now the awestruck owner of this.
Charles was a bridge to the real Bill, allowing me to write the book that, appropriately, will be published by Charlesbridge. (While everything I wrote in this post is sincere, yes, the whole thing was just a set-up for that last line.)
Part 1.
Speaking of detectives, Bill and Bob Kane would meet in Poe Park (in the Bronx, and named for Edgar Allan Poe) and discuss Batman. Maybe they sat near the house of the father of the detective story, which is still there today:
Bill lived in the following Bronx building from 1940 to summer or fall 1941. Therefore, it was likely there where he wrote the first Robin, Joker, and Catwoman stories, took the Batmobile for its first spin, and named Gotham City:
Here’s the Greenwich Village building where Bill had lived for much of the 1940s (during which time he’d created the Riddler) and where I’d been three times previously:
As I stood on the sidewalk in front wearing that Batman and Robin T-shirt, a boy in Joker T-shirt walked by with his mother and brother. His mother said to me “He likes your shirt” and I said “I like his, too.” The timing was, for the second time that day, so apropos that I wonder if the scene wasn’t being scripted by Bill himself from the great (Batman) beyond.
Bill was living at this next Manhattan address in the summer of 1965. In fact, it was while being interviewed in this building during that pivotal summer when he revealed for the first time on the record that he was instrumental in the creation of Batman:
Bill died in Manhattan, in this building, in 1974:
In memoriam.
Bill Finger, uncredited co-creator and costume designer of Batman, was an urban nomad. Between 1939 and his death in 1974, he had at least fifteen addresses; I’ve accounted for all but a few of those years. All but two of these addresses were in the Bronx or Manhattan.
I’ve already introduced three stops on my custom-made “Bill Finger’s New York Tour”—the buildings in which Bill lived at the following times:
On 6/2/11, I was in New York to yet again retrace Bill’s steps.
But before I did, I walked into a funny overlap. It involves overhearing amateur documentary filmmakers asking to interview a comic shop employee. However, I must save the rest of that story for another time…
I donned the only superhero T-shirt I own, and I’d owned it only as of the previous evening. I’d wanted an unconventional design. I found it at Skreened, and the company kindly donated the shirt. Actually two—a small and a medium. Here, I’m wearing them both:
First stop was what some would consider the most significant building in comics history, if only they knew about it: I believe this is where Bill lived in 1939 (his parents definitely did) and I believe it was in this Bronx building that Batman was created:
(Why I believe this.)
I arrived at 11 a.m. and soon after an older woman emerged. I asked her about the building, where I’d not been before, and she answered most politely…in Spanish. Which I don’t speak.
At about 11:30, her son, daughter-in-law, and grandchild arrived. Her son spoke English. He happened to be the landlord.
And he happened to be en route to the building’s closing.
Yes, he had just sold the place in which the world’s greatest detective had swung to life—only he hadn’t known that part of its history. (How would he? It took me a lot of digging to learn it and I was almost certainly the first to do so.)
I asked him if he could’ve gotten a higher price if he’d marketed it as the “The Building Where Batman Was Born.” He laughed, shrugging it off. But I swear his expression suggested he wished he could find out...
He told me that I’d almost missed him. If I’d come only minutes earlier, no one would’ve been there. If I’d come mere minutes later, no one would’ve been there—nor would they be coming back. And the new tenants were not moving in immediately.
While he went to the closing, his wife let me into the vacant building. The bottom two floors had been renovated but the top floor had not. I don’t know which of the units had been Bill’s but I like to imagine it was the top one.
Oh, get this. The new tenants—they’re detectives, too.
Part 2.
The ten previous entries in this series came from schools I have spoken at. Here’s one from a school I hope to speak at this fall: SAR Academy, in the Bronx.
I’m told that the students do a biography unit that culminates in an interactive “wax museum.” Okay, any school project that involves a wax museum is indeed cool, but you had me at “biography.”
For this wax museum, each student chooses a historical figure to portray; in other words, the kids are the statues. Alongside each “wax” statue is a poster explaining how to “activate” it. For Dr. Seuss, you might have to read aloud a page of one of his books. For King Tut, you might have to dance (not walk) like an Egyptian. The kids-as-statues then come alive, talk in character, and complete their mini-presentations by saying “If I could give the world one message, it would be....”
I’m sure this performance assignment inspires kids to take the responsibility of knowing “themselves” really seriously, some because they like to learn and others because they don’t like to be embarrassed—but either way, they get it done.
Making this even sweeter: this year, one of the kids did his project on Boy of Steel Jerry Siegel (co-creator and original writer of Superman). It wasn’t long ago when that was virtually inconceivable.
6/29/13 addendum: Bill Finger in wax.
Beginning 5/24/11, my blog saw a spike in visitors, and it seemed that all of them came via searching the phrase “Superman’s first home.”I figured this must be because of a stumper posed by some crossword puzzle, radio challenge, or other contest. Two days later, the stampede was still going strong.
That ruled out radio contest, since those don’t tend to last longer than an hour, or even a commercial break. But I still didn’t know what it was. (Of course, googling it did not help.)So on 5/27/11, I posted this temporary message at the top of the post getting all the love:Hello kind person who just Googled "Superman's first home"! For some reason, you are one of hundreds of people who have come to my blog in the past few days after searching for that phrase. Why is this happening? Is it a question in some kind of contest? Will you please take a moment to email me the reason? I'm mad with curiosity! As thanks, I will mail the first person to do so a signed copy of one of my books!
Yes, I realize my incentive is barely that, but it was worth a try. And though the hits kept on coming steadily, it took about three hours before someone did write in. All she wrote: “I’m working on a crossword.”
Several hours later, a second person responded and elaborated. It was the TV Guide puzzle, which, given how many were searching, I should've guessed.
So I went back and changed the message, to this:
Welcome, TV Guide crossword puzzler!
I haven’t seen the crossword, but I can help. Superman’s first home is one of the following:
Krypton
Smallville
Kansas
And before you go back to the puzzle: If you or someone you love loves Superman, you will also love a book I wrote called Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman, a picture book for all ages that tells the true, inspirational—and heartbreaking—story of the two young men who dreamed up the world’s first superhero. The book made the front page of USA Today.
A hardcover you can find for less than $7, it makes a great Father’s Day—or graduation—gift. Every generation has its Superman!
Click here to check it out on Amazon!
Shameful? Of course. But it's not every day I'm the first search result for hundreds of TV Guide readers...
And when I looked up the crossword, I was surprised to see this:
8 DOWN: “Smallville state.” The clue was actually not “Superman’s first home.” This astounded me because none of the search terms I noticed were “Smallville state.” How could literally all of the people doing such a search know that Smallville is Superman's first home yet not know the state in which the fictional town was located?
Soon after, the plot thickened and the pulse quickened. The kind soul who told me the source was TV Guide then told me the issue. It was not the 5/23/11 one, as shown above. It was the 5/30/11 one.
Check 22 ACROSS.
What are the odds of these clues running in consecutive puzzles?
The second Chicken Soup book to feature my cartoons is newly out, and like the first, it’s about cuddly and devoted creatures. Last time was grandmothers. This time, dogs.
I'm bypassing a watermark. So please don't take, okay?
Sketching for the camera on 5/24/11.
(Can't see the camera? Look closely in the shadows on the right.)
The comics-posterity-preserving magazine Alter Ego #98 (12/10) features an interview with Alvin Schwartz, longtime writer of comics and beyond (including the creation of Superman’s archnuisance Bizarro); Alvin's 95th birthday is in 2011. This issue also reprints the first known professional photo of Bill Finger to be published, in Green Lantern #1 (1941)—even though it’s “more than a wee bit blurry.”
It’s not the photo itself that is prompting me to mention it, since it already has been disseminated elsewhere (including here). Rather it’s the reason it was used. So says an editor, most likely the editor, Roy Thomas: “…we’d grown tired of showcasing the same handful of Finger photos over and over…”
He means these two.
But what I am most taken by is a comment by Schwartz that may be most profound with no further comment: “Without Bill Finger, there wouldn’t have been any Bob Kane.”
Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman earned a post on this blog with a clever angle: a top-five list inspired by each book. However, the blog itself barely lasted past five entries; perhaps it will be revived.
Ty Templeton’s illustrations for our upcoming book on Bill Finger and Batman (Charlesbridge 7/1/12) will thrillkill readers just as they have me. He is a crazily good fit for the material, and not just because of his respected years working on Batman comics. He is not only professionally connected to the Dark Knight but emotionally connected to the Wronged Writer. It meant a lot to me that he knew more than the basics about Bill Finger before I pitched him this idea.
As he wrote me in March 2011 (and gave me permission to share), “This is a book I’ve wanted to be a part of since before you thought of doing it.”
He also made a quirky observation: the logo of our publisher, Charlesbridge, looks like the head of Batman.
So perhaps not only Ty was predestined for this book, but Charlesbridge, too.
Previously on "How to Order Vanished"...
My Scholastic Book Club book was for sale only via the Scholastic Book Club (order forms in schools) or by calling Scholastic and paying with a credit card.
I just learned that the book is now also available for purchase on the Scholastic site. (Searching Vanished on the home page brings you to the Teacher Store.)
So what?, I hear you think. Any book can be bought online, I hear you think.
Not so, my friend, though before Vanished, I, too, thought that.
What does this change for organizers who so kindly wish to sell this particular book at events where I am appearing/speaking?
Schools/educators with a Scholastic account: You can now order the book on the Scholastic site and without a credit card.
Non-schools: You can also order the book on the Scholastic site, but first must register, and you must still pay with a credit card.
Author Gary Golio (full disclosure: he’s a friend) and illustrator Marc Burckhardt (full disclosure: he spells his first name the right way) are the composers of a new picture book biography (full disclosure: it’s actually more of a storyography) When Bob Met Woody: The Story of the Young Bob Dylan. I think it’s the first trade picture book treatment of the man formerly known as Robert Zimmerman.
I am thrilled someone is introducing this pop culture icon to a new generation in picture book format. It is very likely that many kids will now discover Dylan via Gary's book before the songs themselves. Which, to me, is a whole other kind of beautiful.
The passion Gary has for this subject gives this book bass. I have long pondered the special skill it might take to write successfully about a musician. I think many of the best books on music have a rhythm like music. It takes a true multi-hyphenate to pull that off.The book reminded me how little I know about Dylan. Part of that seems to be his intention; he always strikes me as one of our more reclusive modern legends. But maybe I don’t even know that much for sure.My favorite scene in the book shows Bob playing guitar outdoors during evening snowfall in his small mining town in Northern Minnesota. Serenity then.
Segueing from cold to hot, Gary kindly answered some of my burning questions:This is your second published book on a musician. Did you feel any special challenges in writing about musicians?Actually, my first three books are about musicians (Hendrix, Dylan, Coltrane), with When Bob Met Woody written right after Jimi. I love music, and have been playing guitar for a long time. But I think of musicians simply as artists, and don’t discriminate much when it comes to the medium they use. Since I was a kid, I’ve looked to artists for guidance in learning how to live a creative life. When I write about people like Bob and Jimi—and especially because I’m writing for kids—the challenge is getting to the core of that person and their artistry. I need to fill out a portrait with facts and ideas, to develop themes and a story line, but also not get caught up in or distracted by sensational details or controversies. From the beginning, a lot of people were concerned about my writing a picture book on Jimi Hendrix, but I saw it as a non-issue since it was a book about him as a child, and about the roots of his creative life. While complex as a person, Bob is less controversial in that way, and the story focuses on his youthful passion for music, leading up to his life-changing meeting with mentor and hero Woody Guthrie. Still, Bob was influenced by a wide variety of musical forms (pop, rock, blues, jazz, folk), and it’s important for kids to see that becoming an artist is about educating yourself and learning all you can about what you hope to be good at. It’s also about learning to be who you are. What are you most proud of about this book?I wanted to tell a tale that I felt was timeless, about a young person’s search for his own guiding star, and how that search inevitably leads—if we’re lucky—right back to ourselves. And while I feel very good about the text, I really love Marc Burckhardt’s illustrations for the book. There are several, in particular—like the one of Woody seen against a field and setting sun, or Bob playing for Woody in his hospital room—that accentuate the heroic or tender notes in the story. The cover, too, pulls together so many of the elements in the book—Bob’s boyishness, his looking to Woody (seen in the clouds above) for inspiration, the almost bird-like movement of musical notes crossing the road that Bob’s standing on—and evokes the period of the 50’s/60’s with the feel of classic Americana. I had hoped for an illustrator who could bring both emotion and realism to the images—a hard balance to achieve—yet still hint at the universal aspect of the story. For me, Marc did just that.What was a highlight of your research process? That’s easy: I got to listen to a lot of great music—not just Woody’s and Bob’s songs, but the musicians and traditions that influenced them—and it was a tremendous pleasure as well as a great education. One of the most important things about Bob and Woody is that they sought out musical ideas everywhere. Woody played with Lead Belly, Cisco Houston, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Pete Seeger and the Weavers, at campsites, union rallies, on merchant ships and in concert halls. His songs incorporated the blues, country music, traditional ballads and gospel, and were infused with ideas from books he’d read and what he’d seen in his own life. Bob—even as a boy—listened to Johnny Ray, Hank Williams, Muddy Waters, Lead Belly, Elvis, and Little Richard, but drew on films and books (like Woody’s Bound for Glory), newspaper articles, and even radio plays (like The Shadow). So while I read a lot about Bob’s life, I also got to hear the sound of his life and his thinking through all that music. And really, that’s all you need. Do you think Bob Dylan likes Batman?Have you ever seen the cape that Bob wears in concert? I think that kind of says it all…Some questions that will have to wait for another day:Did you encounter any resistance in trying to sell editors on a picture book about two musicians that many kids today are not familiar with? Did you have say in who would illustrate the book? Did you want a certain type of art? Did you contact Bob Dylan or Arlo Guthrie during your research, and if so, did they respond?Either way, do you plan to contact them upon release of the book? On a side but related note, did you hear what the Jimi Hendrix estate thought of your picture book about him? Does WBMW book contain any anecdotes that (to your knowledge) have not been published before? Because Dylan is still alive, did you feel any additional pressure in writing about him versus Guthrie (or Hendrix)? Do you know of any instances where Dylan has discussed what influence (if any) Judaism has had on his career? Describe a scene or even just a line you wanted in the book but had to cut, for whatever reason.
For more on When Bob Met Woody, check out the rest of Gary Golio's blog tour:
5/17/11 Margo Tanenbaum
5/19/11 Gail Gauthier
5/23/11 Anastasia Suen
5/24/11 Jone MacCulloch
5/24/11 Jama Rattigan
…as well as a write-up in some newspaper called the New York Times.
In March 2008, writer J.L. Bell suggested I contact a not-yet-published-but-already-under-contract writer named Chris Barton. Chris's first published book was more than a year off, and Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman wasn't out yet, either, but John (that’s what the “J” stands for) thought Chris and I would get along based on the kind of nonfiction we liked to write about: unconventional. No textbook names here.
I barely even knew John at the time; now I consider both he and Chris my friends. One perk of my friendship with Chris: an advanced reading copy of his third and most recent publication, Can I See Your I.D.? 
Well, it was advanced when I received it, but the book has since come out. So I’m late out of the gate in covering it here. As penance, I now must compete with the mob of other reviews, most of which are giddy about I.D.
I wonder if it’s too soon to say that this book is vintage Barton. His subject matter: quirky in the best way. His writing style: breezy and controlled.
This is what I especially liked about the book, in order of appearance:
- page 5—the wink to his first book The Day-Glo Brothers
- page 33—the last line about Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, bringing even more poignancy to the story
- the entire Solomon Perel story, my favorite in the book; chilling and skillfully done
- page 83—the nerve-racking finale of the Ellen Craft story; even though good cliffhangers are hard to come by, it must’ve been tempting to continue the story there rather than in the brief “What happened next?” postscript
- pages 87-88—the diverse, quick-cut vignettes that set up the John Howard Griffin story
- page 96—that conversational “like” slipped into the third or so line of the Riley Weston story; the reviews I’ve seen that comment on Chris’s bold choice to write this book in second person single out the repeated use of “you,” but here is an instance where second person goes past mechanics and reveals character—that one word is enough to convey “teen,” which is the falsely assumed identity of the story
- Chris’s approach to the Frank W. Abagnale, Jr. story—thanks to the Spielberg/DiCaprio/Hanks movie, Abagnale is probably the most widely known figure profiled in the book, so in lieu of a condensed version of Catch Me If You Can, Chris wisely focused on only the first step of Abagnale’s astounding con career
I found the Riley Weston story interesting in another way. I almost certainly read the exposé about her in Entertainment Weekly in 1998, yet I don’t remember it in the slightest. As I often say, memory is unreliable, which relates back to Chris’s book because he clearly meticulously researched it via both original interviews and primary sources. I wonder, though, if a person has two or more identities, does s/he have multiple memories, too?
Here’s a little “Can I See Your I.D.” story that didn’t make the book but should make every bookstore employee handbook.
(Coincidentally, one of the people who commented on that post is the talented Paul Hoppe—the illustrator of Can I See Your I.D.?)
In a sense, Can I See Your I.D.? reminds me of my book Vanished: True Stories of the Missing, which came out in 2010. 
Both are compilations of short, high-interest nonfiction about people who disappear (in my case literally). At school visits, I have found Vanished to be far more popular than I anticipated; it’s not gory or otherwise exploitative, but it is, nonetheless, creepy. If there’s one thing kids love, it’s candy. And iCarly.
And creepy.
So even though kids don’t typically read reviews and therefore won’t know the praise Chris’s book has gotten, I have a feeling that he will experience similar reactions, if he hasn’t already.
Speaking of reactions, I would love to see a blog post sharing reactions to the book from people in it, several of whom are indeed still alive.
Don’t worry—Chris wouldn’t post any without first checking I.D.
My Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman editor passed away in February 2011. Here are three things she said or did that continue to resonate five years later:Judge each work on its own. Some months after Janet bought Boys of Steel, she asked me if it was the first book I'd written. Even though my query clearly stated I’d published before, it apparently didn’t factor into her decision to make an offer on the manuscript. All that mattered to her was the quality of the manuscript in and of itself. Credits can help you, for sure, but it was nice to be reminded that a lack of credits won’t necessarily hurt you—if you are lucky enough to find a certain kind of editor.Quantity does not equal credibility. When I wrote my author bio for the back flap, I included how many books I’d published to date. (Yes, this is somewhat related to lesson 1.) Janet suggested I take that figure out; she said it would make it seem like I wasn’t “serious” about writing. At first I was miffed; of course I was serious! But I thought deeper about it. I came to see that throwing out a number may impress some but may indeed trigger skepticism in others. (Of course, if most of my previous books had been bestsellers, I’m sure this wouldn’t have concerned Janet!) Though I've long felt that an author blurb should reveal a quirky aspect about you or your book, I now also try to avoid using any of that limited space to convey the kind of thing a simple Internet search would reveal.Avoid the phrase “eyes on the floor.” A variation of this was in the first line of certain drafts of Boys of Steel, but Janet reasoned that we should rewrite it because Jerry Siegel’s eyes were not literally on the floor. Some idioms or turns of a phrase don’t adhere to this level of exactitude, but since it was Janet who felt the wording was distracting, I felt wise to agree.
My book Vanished: True Stories of the Missing relays seven harrowing stories of people who went off the grid. 
Three of those seven are still with us (meaning they were found); one more might be (but probably isn’t) and, if supernatural power exists, a fifth might also be (but almost certainly isn’t).Aside from a straightforward institutional Rosa Parks biography years ago, this was my first experience writing a book in which a "starring" figure in the story was still alive. It got me thinking about the increased responsibility inherent in that.Of course, serious writers of nonfiction strive to be as accurate as possible no matter who they are writing about. But when the subject of a book or story is still around, certain mistakes could lead to more than just a tsk-tsk from a librarian. Certain mistakes can be embarrassing or, worse, damaging to the person in question.What do writers owe the people they write about? I asked myself this as I was researching Vanished, particularly after I encountered some friction from one of the people the book would feature.I feel a writer must be fair to his subject but not overly protective—because that would not be fair to his readers and to the "record." I don’t know if there is a formal definition of what makes a person a public figure, but I have been told that it is legal to write about anyone. (That doesn’t mean a person unhappy with your portrayal can’t sue you.)But I am no journalist. I like to think I’d stop at nothing to get a story, and in some ways I can be relentless, but I’m not ruthless. I’ve found ways to tell unpleasant truths (or at least truths that a person wants to keep hidden) in ways that don’t completely expose a person. But there have been a couple of times I have held back on publishing a fact because I feel it’s not my right as a stranger to share it. Some writers would call this cowardly. I get that, but to me it’s more about conscience.One of the more nerve-racking moments in my career was sending a copy of Vanished to the three people in it who survived their ordeals.
Normally during research for nonfiction, I try to speak with people I am writing about, or, if they’re deceased, people who knew them. But this book had different parameters and a tight deadline, plus the more recent incidents I was including had been well covered in the media. Therefore, two of those three people did not know that they were in a book until I asked for their addresses, and the third was the one mentioned above. I was prepared for a disapproving reaction from all three, not because I knew a lot about their temperaments but because I would understand if they felt violated that someone had written about them without their permission or input, especially given the sensitive subject matter.With one exception, I needn’t have worried.
Author Susan Campbell Bartoletti writes in The Horn Book (March-April 2011) that in her teaching experience, fiction-reading kids would hold up a favorite book and ask for another like it. But nonfiction readers "wanted to read [books] about things they didn't [emphasis mine] already know.” As one who writes nonfiction about people and events that most readers don’t already know, I say exactly!
I've written several nonfiction picture book manuscripts on subjects not commonly addressed in curriculum or widely known in general. Various editors have turned down one (or more than one) of them with a comment like this: "Fascinating story but not one kids will be familiar with."
But isn't that why we write books? To introduce new stories to young minds?
Several esteemed authors have had similar experiences. Over at Interesting Nonfiction for Kids, Gretchen Woelfle posted this:
There are THOUSANDS of great stories about unknown events in history and unfamous people who did great things. But for years now, (and just last weekend,) editors have told me that "we don't buy and can't sell books about people no one has heard of." Catch 23 or what???? Nevertheless, I am still writing books about unfamous people who did great things. Bit of a masochist, I guess.
Rosalyn Schanzer also weighed in:
Regarding Gretchen's comment, I have also tried very hard but without notable success to get my publishers excited about the amazing lives of the not-so-rich-and-famous. Unfortunately, this wonderful but sometimes frustrating business is all tied directly to the publisher's bottom line and to the limits of the school curriculum.
I understand how tough the market is, but there is a danger in not taking risks. There is a danger in feeding our young minds a steady diet of unoriginality.
There is a time for revisiting beloved stories or beloved types of stories, but to stay vital, we need to continue to supply stories that take us somewhere we've not visited before. After all, the saying is "the great unknown," not "the great known"...
Author Deborah Hopkinson has done something on her site that I find immensely clever. She displays her nonfiction (and historical fiction) books along a timeline. 
This extends the education and even fuses it seamlessly with marketing! If I eventually publish enough picture book nonfiction to do the same, I may brazenly copy this.
