Snicket and Friends Team Up
This story originally appeared in Children's Bookshelf on Nov. 17, 2005 Sign up now!
by Bridget Kinsella, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 11/17/2005
When Ted Thompson, director of events and publishing at 826 NYC—the Brooklyn affiliate of the nonprofit tutoring organization started by Dave Eggers and friends in San Francisco—was looking for a way to raise money for its programs, he thought that perhaps a published collection of out-of-print children's stories would work. But as word started to spread about the project, writers and illustrators eagerly lined up to provide new work for the anthology, gratis.
The result is a book published by McSweeney's last month that just might break some record for title length: Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things that Aren't So Scary, Maybe, Depending About How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cell Phones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and Some Other Story We Couldn't Quite Finish, So Maybe You Could Help Us Out. It features the work of Nick Hornby, Jon Scieszka, Jonathan Safran Foer, Neil Gaiman and others not necessarily known for writing children's stories, with an introduction and unfinished story by Lemony Snicket and a cover designed by Chip Kidd. McSweeney's has announced a 40,000 first printing and all proceeds benefit 826 NYC, one of six such centers that help children ages 8–18 develop their writing skills.
 Snicket via satellite |
Scieszka told Bookshelf that he thought the Lemony Snicket introduction, which pokes fun at every bad stereotype associated with "tedious" storytelling, sets the perfect tone for the book and reflects the philosophy of 826. "Reading and writing don't have to be a school thing—that is really what we want to connect with the kids," Scieszka explained.
The interactive nature of the book extends to the dust jacket, which invites children of any age to complete a short story begun by Lemony Snicket, and enter a contest by returning the self-mailer jacket back to a legion of helpers in white gloves waiting to submit the contest entries. The two contests (one for kids under 18 and one for kids over 18) run through April 1, 2006 and the winning entries will be published in a future book. The winner will also receive a complete set of the Series of Un-fortunate Events books signed by Snicket along with an assortment of prizes, the likes of which you might expect from the folks at McSweeney's—including pounds of chocolate and a Venus flytrap.
