Michael Sullivan’s books draw kids into their pages like a giant magnet. They can’t escape until the end – and by then there’s another book that exerts a pull. It may be Sullivan’s or, just maybe, they’ll pick up one of someone else’s. That’s Sullivan’s sleight of hand.
He isn’t a trickster (although he’s been known to do a bit of juggling). He’s just a former librarian who got to know what will capture a youngster’s imagination. He had a headstart – his own disinterest in reading as a kid. But that, he knows, was a loss.
Sullivan has a bachelor’s degree in history from Harvard and a master’s in library and information science from Simmons College, Boston. He was named New Hampshire’s librarian of the Year in 1998, partly for his innovative programs to get kids into the library and reading. (One of them involves a favorite pasttime -- chess.)
In 2003 he wrote Connecting Boys With Books, dissecting the problem of reading-skill lag in pre-adolescent boys. Seems boys, somewhere between the time the first sit in an adult’s lap and are excited about a picture-storybook and the time their fingers can’t be pried off a video game controller, lose interest in reading. Books seem to be on a high cliff and they’ve fallen off. While one can climb out, maybe as a college student or adult, Sullivan knows it’s better to avoid the drop, to not to miss the stories of one’s youth.
Using his knowledge of what kids, particularly boys, like to read from his 20 years as a librarian, Sullivan penned his first adventure for kids in 2007. Mayhem at Mount Moosilauke introduced his hero, fifth grader Escapade Johnson.
Despite a name synonymous with adventure, Escapade feels like the most boring kid in the most boring town in the least interesting state in the union. According to the book blurb, he even thinks his friends are boring, “despite the fact that they are known as the funniest and most feared class in the history of Sandbornton Elementary.” Then, the field trip to Mount Moosilauke. Escapade ends up face-to-face with an angry bear, classmates fainting and fleeing all around him, forced to decide if living up to his name is a good idea.
Kids loved it, and Sullivan went on to imagine Escapade’s next adventure in the Coffee Shop of the Living Dead (2008). Somehow implicated in a car crash, complete with broken glass and blaring alarms, Escapade has reason to fear one little mistake, in a lifetime of obeying rules and being good, will doom him to become a slave to two walking corpses.
Now, in the just released Witches of Belknap County, there’s more adventure in store for Escapade and his friends, starting in the library. Here’s the synopsis, as described by Amazon.com reader Monica Garcia:
“Escapade is looking for books on mountain climbing, Melinda is browsing the biology section, Benny is checking out magazines, Marjorie is spinning a rack of paperbacks, Cherilyn and Katrina giggling over brightly colored books, and his other friends, Davy and Jimmy, are just being their obnoxious selves. When Cherilyn gathers the group around a table and shows them her books, they are all skeptical about the subject... witchcraft. That is until the Witches of Belknap County enter the library.
“They are three old ladies who are said to be witches and the next thing you know Escapade and his friends are sent on a mission. They are to follow the ladies around the library to get confirmation that they are witches by finding out which books they are reading.
“When that fails the group agrees to meet the next night to finally get their proof by sneaking around the ladies house but when they end up inside the house and it seems they have all the proof they need.”
Garcia says she loved this one as much as the first two books.
“Sullivan knows exactly what will capture a young reader's imagination with Escapade and his friends,” she writes. “There is enough suspense and action to keep young readers turning the pages and a delightful story that also teaches a very important message about judging people before getting to know them. I highly recommend this book and the whole series for your kids.”
Illustrations, by Joy Kolitsky, have comic book-style appeal. She’s done animation work MTV Animation, Hanna Barbera, and Sony Pictures.
For librarians, teachers, and parents, Sullivan has also just published a companion to his first book on reading. In Connecting Boys With Books 2: Closing the Reading Gap, Sullivan digs even deeper, melding his own experiences as a reading activist with perspectives gleaned from other experts. He tells us how to uncover the signs that create the reading gap; find creative new programming ideas to match boys' interests; and, establish a strategic blueprint for boys and reading. In short, how to reinvigorate the sense of excitement that boys felt when they first heard a picture book being read aloud.
Meet Michael Sullivan Friday May 22
Comments