November 6, 2004

Children's author shares humor

CMA graduate recounts school days, writing career.

By JOSHUA STOWE
Tribune Staff Writer

 

Children's author and 1972 Culver Military Academy graduate Jon Scieszka speaks at Culver Academies on Friday. Scieszka shared humorous stories from his student days and his writing career with students. Tribune Photo/BARBARA ALLISON

CULVER -- Jon Scieszka was just full of friendly advice Friday.

The children's author and Flint, Mich., native succinctly summed up his advice for students during several talks to students at Culver Academies.

First, rejection is a part of life -- especially if you're an author, Scieszka, a 1972 Culver Military Academy graduate, told students.

Also, he said, your senior picture will look horrible, no matter what you do, so just give up now.

Finally, he added, "Scieszka" isn't hard to pronounce once you realize it rhymes with "Fresca."

Scieszka's quirky synopsis capped off remarks spiced with anecdotes and punctuated by frequent humor.

He kept students laughing as he talked about what he'd learned in his time at Culver Military Academy. That's where he picked up his sense of humor, he told a curious student who asked.

"Absolutely -- it was the only way to survive, don't you think?" he said, describing the absurdity of marching in uniform on a cold snowy morning while being yelled at. "Either it's funny or you die."

Culver Academies is a great place to learn, Scieszka said.

"Just know that you're doing great stuff here," he said. "I had some of the greatest teachers here."

That included a math teacher who could "flip a piece of chalk with unerring accuracy and nail someone when they nodded off. Then he graduated to erasers!"

Scieszka's time at Culver Military Academy also taught him that senior pictures always look bad. He still laughs when he sees his 1970s-style haircut that seemed like a good idea at the time.

His senior year was the first year girls were admitted to Culver, he recalled.

"We knew something was gonna happen because the thing they did differently (outside the new girls' dormitory) was, they cut down the bushes and put in lights," he said.

"The only thing they didn't do was put up barbed wire!"

Scieszka also talked about his interest in writing. He credited Culver with putting him on the winding path that eventually made him a children's author.

"What Culver did for me is to make me think I could do anything," he said, "or at least give anything a try."

Scieszka tried medical school, but realized he "didn't want to work with sick people." He then got a degree in fiction writing.

"What the hell do you do with that?" he asked. "No one will give you money."

After that, Scieszka tried painting but couldn't stand the fumes. So he tried teaching first grade, little knowing that his frequently sick students were nothing if not "snot-rockets."

"I thought, how hard could it be?" he said. "I was in first grade once."

After sending out numerous manuscripts and meeting only rejection, Scieszka finally found success.

"Mostly what happens as a writer is you get rejected -- a lot," he said. "Just don't take it personally."

Scieszka's now the author of many popular books, including "The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs," "The Frog Prince Continued," and the Time Warp Trio series.

He's well-known for the Caldecott Honor Book "The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales," which he wrote after watching his daughter's fascination with "The Gingerbread Man."

He read from several short stories on Friday, including "The Really Ugly Duckling," which tells the story of a duckling who mistakenly believes he'll grow up to be a beautiful swan but instead becomes a really ugly duck.

Scieszka also read from several poems. And he answered a tough question from a student, who wondered if he gets "some kind of sick pleasure out of knowing your stories torture people."

Scieszka laughed at that.

"Actually," he said, "I do!"

Staff writer Joshua Stowe:

(574) 936-1021