The Inside Story Behind Humphrey and How He Evolved – Part 1
June 30th, 2011
Today is the release date for the newest Humphrey book, School Days According to Humphrey. I barely mention a new book to family and friends any more – it doesn’t feel like big news to them. Just another Humphrey book. But reflecting on this seventh book, to me it almost feels like a miracle.
Everybody wants to know how a book gets written. Students, teachers, librarians, readers and most of all authors. I want to know how a book gets written because it often seems random and in my experience, no two books get written the same way.
So here’s the story of Humphrey’s journey into print:
I had the idea for Humphrey long ago when my son was in elementary school. As I’ve recounted many times, I was in my son’s science classsroom and that teacher had the room lined with cages and tanks with all kinds of animals, from cute, furry hamster to lizards and turtles and most notably, a boa constrictor named Lumpy. The teacher liked to wear Lumpy around her waist. The kids loved Lumpy - perhaps he deserves his own book! Other parents may have been thinking about their kids’ grades or trying to win points with the teacher … but being a writer, I stood there and wondered what those animals thought about what they saw and heard in the classroom. And I immediately thought it would be fun to write a book looking at a classroom through the eyes of a classroom pet. Fun for me to write and fun for kids to read.
Over a number of years, I took notes and even occasionally made a stab at an introductory chapter. I worked on the book sporadically when the spirit moved me and I had a rare bit of free time. At the time I was writing numerous television shows for children, often more than one at a time, and had a child of my own to raise. But I always came back to my classroom pet idea, because I thought it was fun and something kids would like. It was something I would have enjoyed reading when I was growing up.
A little backstory: I had grown increasingly frustrated with television and knew I wanted to write children’s books. As time went on, I set a goal to concentrate less on scoring a random episode of a show and concentrating on 1) creating my own shows, 2) developing other people’s shows 3) writing children’s books. I hoped to end up my career as a children’s book writer. But I surely couldn’t give up television as I needed the income. And everybody knows you can’t make a living writing children’s books. At least that’s the conventional wisdom and it’s mostly true. By the way, I did create many shows and got network development deals. None got on the air but I did make money off the options, bibles and pilot scripts I wrote. I also did a lot of development on other people’s shows (which means writing the series bible and pilot). In 1994 I had my first picture book published: Tyrannosaurus Tex. In 1996 I had a second picture book published: Pies in the Oven. Both were with Houghton Mifflin and were sold without an agent.
My first scribbling about Humphrey was this: The story of a pet (hamster or mouse) that lives in a classroom but goes home with a different student each weekend. Except for the mouse, that’s a pretty accurate description of the book. I toyed with having each chapter is an incident in a house where the pet stays, but when it came to writing the book, I guess I realized that I had to show the set-up of a problem in the classroom and that, most importantly, Humphrey had to have his own arc, his own problem to overcome.
For a while, I wrote a few thoughts about once a month. So the second note includes this statement: Every time he thinks he has human behavior all figured out, something at the next house throws his theory off. Not exactly the way the books unfold, but Humphrey is, first and foremost, a student of human behavior.
A month later, my notes include Humphrey (he had a name now), worrying the lock open and getting out of the cage. Here I wrote:
-What is his purpose?
-cure a problem a kid has
-get a parent to pay attention to kid’s problem
-help another pet
-remind kid of something important.
A few sentences later I mention the no-nonsense teacher who became Mrs. Brisbane and said: Last chapter, the teacher has to take Humphrey home. Which, of course, does happen at the end of the first book, The World According to Humphrey. I say first book, but at this time, I only expected to write one book because Humphrey didn’t start out as a series.
A month after that, I made a list of character traits. Six of the eight I wrote down remain core characteristics of Humphrey’s character. A few days after that note, I decided that Mrs. Brisbane would be flawed, at least in Humphrey’s eyes.
No notes for three months. Then I listed some potential problems for the students to have. Of the four I wrote, I’ve used three so far and the fourth is still viable. One was the shy girl who never speaks. Speak-Up-Sayeh is always a favorite with readers.
Six months after my first note, Aldo comes in to clean! He’s remained in every book. Of course, now he’s also going to school to become a teacher.
Humphrey was definitely taking shape. During this period I also researched hamsters and I researched other books with hamster characters (there weren’t many then) to make sure there wasn’t anything too close to it.
Here’s the deal: these notes were started in 1996. The World According to Humphrey came out in 2004. I actually wrote it in 2002.
In my next post, I’ll share what happened in between.
I should take this excellent advice from England!
I just want to say a special Valentine’s Day thank you to Humphrey’s devoted fans … and to those who write to say they love Sassafras Springs and Princess Egg.
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