It’s finally time to share a secret: Book 10 in the Humphrey series, Secrets According to Humphrey, will be released in the U.S. on January 2, 2014! That means that diehard Humphrey fans will have to save a bit o’ holiday cash!

I have a real thing about secrets.  I believe that secrets are always revealed in the end – and there are secrets flying around Room 26 like crazy! The theme of ancient Egypt was inspired by someone at Penguin (who?) who suggested it at a large party that included marketing, art and sales people. Thank you, anonymous person! Humphrey makes a great pharaoh!

Even though Secrets comes out after the  holidays, there are plenty of books available for gift-giving ! First of all, there’s Winter According to Humphrey, which was published in paperback in October! (Christmas According to Humphrey in the UK)

Also in the UK is a fun new activity book, Humphrey’s Book of Christmas Fun! A perfect stocking stuffer!

And there are two books that had been published in the UK by Faber and now have been released in the US by Penguin. Humphrey’s Book of FUN-FUN-FUN combines an activity book with puzzles and mazes and a joke book! Humphrey’s World of Pets is an extremely comprehensive pet care guide. If you’re getting a holiday pet, you need to know how to take care of it or you could be facing a real disaster, sorry to say.

Secrets According to Humphrey comes out in the UK on February 6. I think it’s interesting how similar (and fantastic) both covers are. That’s not always the case.

In case you’re still looking for another Humphrey book in the UK, this has recently been released: a compendium of previously-published Humphrey’s Tiny Tales and a BRAND-NEW ONE, probably my favorite: My Mixed-Up Magic Trick. Who doesn’t love a bit of magic?

So have a HAPPY-HAPPY-HAPPY Humphrey holiday! If I haven’t posted recently, it’s because: I’M WRITING ANOTHER HUMPHREY BOOK! And the U.S. has loads of new books to look forward to… but that’s still a secret!

Wishing you all a magical holiday season and a hamster-rific New Year!  xxoo

Sooooo many Americans have asked, “Why can’t we buy those other Humphrey books here?” They were referring to books that were originally published only in the UK. So I’m HAPPY-HAPPY-HAPPY to announce that the activity book, HUMPHREY’S BOOK OF FUN-FUN-FUN and the comprehensive pet care guide, HUMPHREY’S WORLD OF PETS, are now available in the U.S. Whoopeee!

More good news: WINTER ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY is now out in paperback. All this on the same day!

HUMPHREY’S BOOK OF FUN-FUN-FUN is chock full of jokes, puzzles, mazes, drawing activities and just plain fun.

HUMPHREY’S WORLD OF PETS gives detailed information on the care of all kinds of pets, from dogs, cats, hamsters of course, gerbils, mice, rats, rabbits, chinchillas, fish and exotic pets as well. If you love pets, have pets, would like a pet are planning to get a pet, this book has it all. But that’s not all – there are also jokes and activities and amazing pet facts and stories.

WINTER ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY, which was released in hardcover in the U.S. last year, covers the excitement and confusion in Room 26 as the class prepares for a holiday musical performance. There’s music and dancing and of course, the star of the show: Humphrey! (This book is called Christmas According to Humphrey in the UK.)

And I know it’s early to talk about he holidays, but HUMPHREY’S BOOK OF CHRISTMAS FUN was just published in the UK – a really fun holiday-themed activity book.

All in all, I’d say this was a HAMSTER-IFFIC day!

The number one question I get about the Humphrey books is this: is there a real Humphrey? I hate to disappoint fans who want me to have a hamster named Humphrey, but I’m always honest. I don’t have a hamster and I’ve never have had a hamster. I’ve met some perfectly lovely hamsters, though.

Today, an enthusiastic fan asked, “Do Humphrey’s classmates exist in real life?”

I get that kind of question a lot. Which character is really you? Did you have a teacher like Mrs. Brisbane?

Some of these queries are teacher-inspired (I can always tell when everybody in class asks the same question).  I appreciate the fact that  teachers are trying to get their students to connect more deeply with the material they’re reading. Bravo to that!

But I also feel uneasy because I hope children aren’t getting the impression that everything they read in a fictional work was based on or inspired by something in real life.  I’m more interested in getting students to learn to use their imaginative powers. The reason I wanted to be a writer at an early age was simply that I loved exercising my imagination. To think that I could create characters and places and whole worlds out of my imagination was a thrilling prospect to me. The Humphrey books would be pretty dreary if everything I wrote was based on my real life. Obviously, my own experiences shape what I write.  But those are bits and pieces – it’s  applying imagination to my experiences that weaves the story.

So, yes, I had a teacher who was stern and not bubbly but really cared about her students and could be affectionate at times. But Mrs. Brisbane looks more like a young Judi Dench than Mrs. Nevels.

Yes,  I went through grades 1-6 with a girl in my class who would never speak when the teacher called on her. That was the starting point for Sayeh’s character.  I don’t know what Sally’s problem was, but I know it wasn’t the same as Sayeh’s.

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Oh, yes, there was a bully on my bus (Friendship According to Humphrey).  In fact, he was a maniac who spewed anger in a frightening manner. But he wasn’t exactly like Martin Bean.

And there was  no shortage of smart, impulsive students who were so focused on answering a question they forgot to raise their hands, like Raise-Your-Hand-Heidi. Or chronic gigglers like Stop-Giggling-Gail.

There is one character who is a lot like me, but kids don’t believe me when I tell them. It’s Humphrey!  Something about that character comes from the deepest part of me. I really hated injustice and when I was growing up I’d try to right wrongs –  that often brought on problems. I tried hard to be good and helpful. I failed a lot on that, but I earnestly tried. I tried to stick up for kids who were being bullied. That backfired, too. But I can honestly say I never teased or bullied anyone. I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing that and neither would Humphrey. I like to write little rhymes and random thoughts in a notebook.  I believe in having a plan, and like Humphrey’s, my plans don’t always work. (Still, I agree with him when he says if you don’t have a plan, then nothing’s going to happen.) And I am a professional worrier, just like my furry little friend in Room 26.

So if there is a real Humphrey, this is how he looks:

And that’s the truth!

( Please note, I put all the titles in Italics, but when I put the blog up live, the italics disappear. Thanks, WordPress. I do know better. )

Finally – Mysteries According to Humphrey is now out in paperback in the U.S.! (The Humphrey books are only published in paperback in the UK.)

I’m happy that the Humphrey books are hardcovers. They look great, last a lot longer and – let’s be honest – I get a higher royalty. But I’m equally happy when they come out in paperback because they are more affordable.

Mysteries is a title I had in my head for a long time before writing the book. I’m a mystery lover and I liked mysteries when I was growing up. There was Nancy Drew, of course! Back in the 1950s, we were still reading the originals, so Nancy wore frocks and drove a roadster. That didn’t bother me. In fact, I thought it was kind of cool.

Another book I loved was Mystery at the Little Red Schoolhouse by Helen Fuller Orton. I liked reading about kids in other time periods and I also liked any book that took place in a one-room schoolhouse. My grandmother and my father attended one-room schools and I loved hearing stories about them.

Somewhere along the line, I got a cheap paperback that had abridged versions of two Sherlock Holmes stories. The Red-Headed League was just so clever, it stuck with me, so I had to include it in Mysteries According to Humphrey.  That well-loved paperback led me to a lifelong love of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective and a deeper exploration of his adventures, which you can read more about here.

Happy August – a great month to read a mystery! Or at least a couple of Sherlock Holmes stories. The Dancing Men is another favorite.

In my last post, I described conquering my fear of the laughing clown at the Forest Park Highlands in St. Louis, where our school picnic was held each year. Of course, I had a little help from a friend.

But there was a much bigger milestone looming on the horizon – and I do mean looming: the Highlands’ famous and beloved wooden roller coaster, the Comet. It was a fine roller coaster – fast, rattle-y, with huge drops and even a tunnel, which was unusual for the time.  It was also pretty scary for a little kid. I can’t remember if the criteria for riding was age or height (oddly enough, I think it was age). I wanted to be a big kid and ride it. But I was also pretty darned scared of it. The screams coming from the riders in action didn’t help. But all the cool teenagers rode it (over and over again, because you could re-ride without standing in line again – all you had to do was have another ticket in your pocket).   I was also motivated by the fact that my sister could already ride it because she was one of those cool older kids. Just as I had with the laughing clown at the Funhouse, I vacillated between longing to ride the Comet and fearing it.

My Dad knew just what to do. He said that he would ride it with me. I can remember our walk to the Comet and my Dad chatting away about how much fun it would be.

I had a great Dad. He was the Dad who always drove my friends and me to parties and school events. He taught me to drive – taking me to cemeteries where there were roads, but no traffic. He was sympathetic.  He liked to tell jokes and use wordplay, but truthfully, he never acted the way he acted that day. For one thing, I don’t ever remember him riding any of the rides. Parents usually held court in the covered pavilion, protecting the picnic lunches, while the kids roamed freely.

But that day, he wanted to ride the Comet. As we approached the wooden behemoth. Dad’s attitude was very casual.  My legs felt like wooden sticks. But still, I wanted to ride.

When we got to the platform, we had to wait a long time, because all the cool teenagers would hold up their tickets to re-ride. You had to wait a long time on the platform before you got a seat.  Too long for a little girl who was torn between proving she was a grownup (well, not reallly) and fleeing. But Dad just chatted away and was breezy and relaxed.  Finally, we got a car. Thank goodness it wasn’t a front car. Before long, I’d fight to get the front car, but it’s not a great idea for the first time.

I can still hear that rattle-rattle-rattle as the car lurched forward. Dad just looked at me and smiled. The rollercoaster climbed – and oh, that first drop was a doozy. “Scream,” Dad told me.

And my father, for the first time I’d ever heard, he screamed. I screamed, too.

Every drop, every turn, he’d scream.

This was my father, whom I never saw shed a tear until many years later. My father, who had fought in the worst of WWII: the Battle of the Bulge in Patton’s army. My father, a business man who also  built things with his own hands on DIY projects ranging from laying bricks and stones to building a whole family room on the house and roofing it. He transported tons of rocks by hand one summer.

He screamed and I screamed right along with him.

Through sharp turns and unpredictable drops, we screamed and then, he took his hands off the rail and waved them in the air. “No hands,” he said.

I released my white-knuckled grip and raised my hands. Because that’s what you did on the Comet.

I was a grown-up.

I was a cool kid.

And I owed it all to my father.

As far as I knew, he never rode the Comet again. But during the following years, you couldn’t keep me off that glorious ride.

I don’t know if I really was a cool kid, but by the time I got to Junior High, pretty much all I rode was the Comet. And like those teenagers before me, I re-rode.

Unfortunately, the Forest Park Highlands burned down in 1963. I was in high school at the time, but I think the school picnics had already ended.  I had other mountains to conquer. I don’t remember mourning.

Interestingly, two rides didn’t burn down that day: the Comet and the equally-iconic and very beautiful Carousel, which still exists in Faust Park in Chesterfield, MO. I haven’t paid the carousel a visit, but I can still hear the ringing of the bells, the music, the bright lights. Those two rides represent my entire childhood: from the point when the Carousel was exciting to the unbelievable thrill of the Comet.  Those rides took me from childhood to – well, maybe not adulthood, but that next place between childhood and adulthood.

A very sweet spot.

P.S. Our next door neighbor, Mr. Haemmerle, was the chief electrician at the Highlands. He assured us that every single day an inspector checked out the Comet and took a ride, which was very comforting. (The Haemmerles had one of those bowling machines in their basement Rathskeller – something the Highlands had phased out.)

Also, one of my favorite school bus drivers, Carl, was a French-Canadian roustabout – compact, muscular, handsome – who worked the Ferris Wheel at the Highlands during the summer. A rather heroic figure to us riders – someone I should definitely write about!

And now, if you’re feeling very grown-up, take a ride on the Comet.