We here at the Family Valued newspaper warren, free-form gardens, and 24-hour cafeteria have randomly selected a ten-year-old from among the one immediately available.

Who is this David Lubar guy?
Bwa-ha-ha-ha. He is a horror writer. He writes scary stories.

The kind that keep you up at night?
No, actually I don’t get crept up by creepy stories and usually I don’t have nightmares if I read them before bed. Because I am a horror fan. Because I love scary books, movies, and things like that. I’ve read In the Land of the Lawn Weenies and Other Misadventures and Invasion of the Road Weenies and Other Warped and Creepy Tales. They’re actually collections of short stories.

What’s your favorite story?
Hard to say. There’re a whole bunch of creepy ones. One of the really creepy ones was “Sun.” It opens with a boy talking about the beach and getting sunburned. Most people can stop getting burned by putting on sunscreen, but that’s never really worked for him. A new kid enters his class and she looks nice. So, after school, he and a friend visit her. The new kid says come on in, sit down, let’s talk. The friend asks the new kid have you ever had any bad sunburn. The new kid says no. The boy asks have you had any sunburns. The new kid says no. The boy says, “Everybody burns, everybody burns,” because he’s sensitive because he has a really bad one. The new kid says I don’t and her skin starts flaking off. The new kid turns into a lizard and attacks the boy and eats him. Then the lizard jumps onto the friend and that’s the end of the story.

Just so other people can decide if David Lubar is too scary for them, how scary are his stories?
They are very scary compared to Goosebumps. I like him as much as Ray Bradbury and H.G. Wells.

June, 2006

Writers & Books is looking to nurture some winter flowers among the youth of Rochester with vacation fun and other special offerings. For winter break, check out:

Grades 1–3: Read Around the World with Sally Bittner Bonn – Listen to stories and poems from cultures near and far. We will celebrate our diversity while exploring literature. From the streets of Harlem to the mountains of Japan, to the tombs of Ancient Egypt, find the threads within stories which tie us all together. Create our “deerskin” stories, learn the art of origami, and put on a play.

Grades 4–6: Drama Dream Team: Myth and Heroes with Marna Rossi – Time-warp back to ancient Greece and bring gods and goddesses, mortals, and monsters to life. Visit the Memorial Art Gallery and learn more about the ancient Greeks. Retell a Greek myth with humor, poetry, music, movement, and masks.
For those caught between winter break and summer plans, spring break offerings are:

Grades 1–3: Magic Tree House Readers’ Club with Marna Rossi – Participate in adventures from the Magic Tree House Series. Learn, like Annie and Jack, about the animals and people in each tale. Enjoy a Magic Tree House Picnic in the amazing new Classroom in the Trees (at the Gell Center of the Finger Lakes).

Grades 4–6: Fun with Fiction with Camy Sorbello – Release that cool story in your head aching to jump out. Through writing exercises and support, write a short story or even begin a novel. Identify interesting settings and characters and dialogue. In addition to developing a story idea or two, discover what questions writers ask themselves as they write.

All classes run Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–3 p.m. and cost $159 for W&B members or $165 for everyone else.

January, 2007

In the midst of all the parenting advice thrown at me over the years by well-meaning strangers, fretful family members, and bothersome busybodies, I remember hearing: “Don’t play all that Wiggles crap for your kid. Unless you want to go out of your mind, start’em off right, listening to the stuff you like. Otherwise, you’ll be driving around jamming to Baby Beluga for the next twenty years. And who needs that?”

So, my bumptious bundle was tossed about to the jolly rhythms of the Beatles and Prince and Lyle Lovett. He’s so much older now, but still at an age which is the focus of Kids Blech. Just as frightening, he’s entering the age where the next teen sensation will be marketed squarely at him- some otherworldly offspring of a Hanson and a Simpson.

I’ve done my best: watching Yellow Submarine with him; playing Sam Cooke; teaching him Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly lyrics; laughing along to They Might Be Giants; attending RPO and Eastman jazz concerts. We had our first test last weekend.

We entered the overly hallowed Rock Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Like every other museum, he looked for favorites and ignored large areas. He learned a little more about some artists who had only scratched his surface. He was desperate to ensure that his two favorites had been inducted: “I knew the Beatles would be there because everybody likes them, but I wasn’t sure about the Who.” He rested easy when he saw their signatures etched on the roll of honor. And we can both sing along to My Generation.

October, 2005