GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE and WINGER by Andrew Smith

I first saw Andrew Smith when he accepted the Printz Honor for GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE back in 2015, and I was immediately compelled by what he said about characters, and the importance of making them organic. At a recent conference, I also bought his book WINGER, another good example of his unique wit and voice.

Sixteen-year-old Austin Szerba interweaves the story of his Polish legacy with the story of how he and his best friend , Robby, brought about the end of humanity and the rise of an army of unstoppable, six-foot tall praying mantises in small-town Iowa.

To make matters worse, Austin's hormones are totally oblivious; they don't care that the world is in utter chaos: Austin is in love with his girlfriend, Shann, but remains confused about his sexual orientation. He's stewing in a self-professed constant state of maximum horniness, directed at both Robby and Shann. Ultimately, it's up to Austin to save the world and propagate the species in this sci-fright journey of survival, sex, and the complex realities of the human condition.

Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids in the Pacific Northwest. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie, who thinks of him as a little boy.

With the help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and his penchant for doodling comics, Ryan Dean manages to survive life’s complications and even find some happiness along the way. But when the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out how to hold on to what’s important, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart.

Filled with hand-drawn info-graphics and illustrations and told in a pitch-perfect voice, this realistic depiction of a teen’s experience strikes an exceptional balance of hilarious and heartbreaking.





According to your bio, you are a native-born Californian who spent most of your formative years traveling. What do you think we can learn from people who live in different places around the world?

I'm actually the son of an immigrant, and I was the first child in my family born in America. I don't think there has been anything that has educated or impacted me more than traveling and meeting people from unfamiliar places. In the same way that books help to develop empathy for those whose experiences don't overlap perfectly with our own, immersing yourself in the culture of new environments humanizes the world; it breaks down the desensitizing barriers that are consequential to experiences filtered through technologies.

Speaking of breaking down barriers, GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE offers a clever blend of realistic problems within an world built on science fiction. In what ways do you think fiction can offer truth and/or show what truly matters?

The things that happen in GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE that are preposterous are completely enmeshed in the things that are true--love, self-doubt, wonder, the end of childhood, Austin's solipsism. Since fiction is not constrained to reiterating with precision a timeline of specific occurrences, we have the room to explore the innate truths that are universal parts of the human experience (and this is at the core of the essential questions Austin--the narrator/historian--constantly struggles with).

You have a masterful way of making narrators struggle, and I love that WINGER begins with Ryan's head in a toilet. What do you like the most about writing the beginnings of stories?

The beginning of the story--the first few lines--are so important to me because I want to condense into that moments-long experience of the reader who is just arriving on page one as much as I can about the mood, environment, characters, and conflict that will become the foundation architecture that build a bridge to the final page. I love beginnings, and spend a great deal of time and thought making sure (hopefully) I get them right.

You definitely have so far. What are some of your current projects?

I've turned in two novels to my agent and editor in the past year, so we'll see what happens with them. There are a few movie adaptations currently in various stages of development. I have a short story (called "Julian Breaks Every Rule") in an upcoming anthology published by Bloomsbury in July, called BECAUSE YOU LOVE TO HATE ME. The anthology is all about villains. It was a lot of fun. And at the moment, I am beginning work on a graphic novel with an artist friend in New Zealand.

Buy: BookPassage ~ Amazon.com ~ Barnes & Noble ~  IndieBound

Buy: BookPassage ~ Amazon.com ~ Barnes & Noble ~  IndieBound

Buy: BookPassage ~ Amazon.com ~ Barnes & Noble


This post can also be viewed here.