Children’s author Dan Gutman encouraged youngsters at Manalapan’s Clark Mills School to stick with their writing even if the initial response is not supportive. Popular children’s author Dan Gutman encouraged youngsters at the Clark Mills School in Manalapan to stick with their writing even if the initial response to what they have created is not met with support.
Gutman gave a captivating presentation at the school on April 17. He spoke to more than 500 children in the first through fifth grades. His personal and interactive talk had the children on the edge of their seats.
The author’s visit was arranged by library media specialist Gail Murray and funded by the PTA.
“Our school was buzzing with excitement. The students are very aware of Mr. Gutman’s work. Even the most reluctant readers are comfortable reading his books,” she said.
Gutman has authored “The Weird School Series,” “Bunny Double We’re in Trouble,” “The Homework Machine,” “The Baseball Card Adventure Series” and “Genius Files,” according to Murray.
Gutman, who told the students he did not like to read as a child, spoke about the writing system he used to write his first book, “Honus & Me.” He jotted down the story on file cards and planned the story including dialogue and facts, and then arranged the file cards to weave the story together.
“I said, ‘This is my masterpiece,’ ” Gutman said. “I was proud and sent it to Scholastic [publishers]. You might think that someone who writes a lot of books does not get rejected, but my first book got rejected a lot.
“I brought my rejection letters to show you I was rejected by everyone. Do you ever read Sports Illustrated for Kids? They rejected me. We’ve all read Disney books. They rejected me. Highlights magazine? They rejected me.
“I thought ‘Honus & Me’ was the best thing I’d ever written,” Gutman said. “I sent it to Scholastic and they said, ‘[We] don’t think kids will find it as fascinating as adults do.’ Did I give up?”
The students responded with a loud “no.”
He said one publisher rejected the book and told him “the writing is flat.”
“When you are an author and they say [your book is] boring, it hurts. I sent the book to one more publisher, HarperCollins, but I did not get a letter.”
Instead, Gutman said, he received a phone call because the publisher liked the book.
“I had two years of rejections before finding a publisher for ‘Honus & Me,’ ” he said. He described how a book is edited and corrected and told the children, “If your teacher writes corrections [on an assignment], don’t get mad. They just want to make you write better, just like my editor does with me.”
“Honus & Me,” published in 1997, became the first of Gutman’s Baseball Card Adventures book series. The book is about a boy who finds the most valuable baseball card in the world, a 1909 Honus Wagner card. The youngster discovers he has the power to travel through time using baseball cards like a time machine.
On his website, Gutman writes that the process of getting “Honus & Me” published taught him life is difficult, that other people do not always recognize good things, that if you truly believe in something, don’t ever give up, no matter how many times you are rejected, and that persistence pays off.
“In your lives, when you get rejected, I hope you don’t quit,” he told the children. “Stick it out.”
Gutman’s latest book is “Rappy the Raptor.”
“He’s a raptor,” the author said. “He raps.”
“Having Dan Gutman at Clark Mills allowed our students to see the face behind the words of one of their favorite authors,” Principal Jayme Orlando said.
“He was inspiring and instilled a love of reading and writing. He communicated the importance of perseverance and determination. I believe his visit will be remembered and provide motivation to our young readers and writers for many years to come,” Orlando said.
Gutman lives in Haddonfield with his wife, Nina, and their two children. He grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Rutgers University in 1977 with a degree in psychology.