By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Stuart Gibbs, the best-selling, middle-grade fiction writer, was about 10 years old when he saw Roger Moore as 007 Agent James Bond on the big screen foiling an attempt to hijack a space shuttle in midair.
Stuart Gibbs (Photo Provided)
“And that was it,” Gibbs said of the trajectory that led him to a career writing screenplays, books and graphic novels. He spoke to the Sentinel by phone from his home in Los Angeles, in advance of his arrival in Sitka today.
Gibbs, who writes mostly for tweens and teens, will give presentations to students at Keet Gooshi Heen and Blatchley Middle School during school hours, and to the public Wednesday evening, also at Keet.
Gibbs, 53, has been a writer most of his life, inspired by that first 007 experience.
“I know ‘Moonraker’ is generally considered the worst James Bond movie they ever made,” Gibbs said in his interview. “But I had very little to compare it to so I thought it was fantastic.”
His first stories as a youngster were about James Bond’s son “Jimmy,” a normal kid who wanted to be a spy like his dad.
“Then I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if he went to a top secret spy school? I would’ve wanted to go to a top secret spy school,” he said. “So that was the idea I had when I was the age of a lot of the kids I’ll be talking to.”
That idea led to Gibbs’ “Spy School” series, one of six different series of books he wrote for kids: “Spy School,” “FunJungle,” “Last Musketeer,” “Moon Base Alpha,” “Charlie Thorne,” and “Once Upon a Tim.”
He credits his teachers with encouraging him to be a writer – including a first-grade teacher who helped him try to get a book published.
“That didn’t happen, but I appreciated her trying,” Gibbs said, adding that he still has some of the stories he wrote in kindergarten.
He was first a successful screenwriter in Hollywood, and joined the picket line with his colleagues when the Writers Guild of America went on strike in 2007-08. And that gave him the impetus to work on his books, and get them published.
“When I was in college, I was studying field biology, and worked at a zoo, and was doing research on a capybara – the world’s largest rodent,” Gibbs said. “I ended up spending all this time at the zoo, befriending zookeepers, getting to go behind the scenes, and just discovering the zoo is a fascinating place for stories. ... I played around with that for years trying to figure out what to do, and one day I thought I could do a mystery series, thinking about all these crimes that occur to animals.”
His first published book was “Belly Up,” about a hippo in a zoo/game park, published in 2010.
Gibbs said that in addition to his Bond experience, he was influenced by the books he enjoyed as a child: the Encyclopedia Brown series and ones by Roald Dahl and Shel Silverstein.
“I love a good mystery, and I really like books that are fun,” he said. “A great mystery that I loved when I was in fourth grade is ‘The Westing Game,’ by Ellen Raskin. I still re-read ‘The Westing Game’. It’s so well crafted. And of course I read all The Hardy Boys.”
Gibbs has been to Alaska before, and was excited to receive an invitation from Haines children’s librarian Holly Davis to come up and present programs in the city’s schools. Davis is the sister of Sitka High School teacher Betty Richter, and Richter credits her children, 11-year-twins Ruby and Quentin, with lighting the spark that led to Gibbs’ trip to Southeast.
“Holly came and visited us, and Quentin showed her the book he was reading – ‘Belly Up,’” Betty said. “She read it in half a minute – she’s a fast reader – and got hooked. She ordered all the Stuart Gibbs books for the Haines library.”
After three years during the pandemic with no children’s authors visiting, Davis had the budget to bring Gibbs to Haines. Betty’s kids are big fans, and she knew others would be interested, so she wanted to get Gibbs to Sitka while he was in Southeast.
She enlisted Kari Sagel, the school district’s family engagement specialist, to help arrange for the author to make presentations here. Sponsors include KGH GoFundMe, Friends of the Library, Sitka Rotary, Emblem Club, Sitka Moose Lodge, First Bank, Harry Race, Subway, Allen Marine. Meggan Turner donated an Airbnb rental for the author.
Ruby and Quentin said they’re looking forward to meeting the author. They credit their enthusiasm for Gibbs to their dad, Cliff Richter, who found “Space Case” at a book fair, and read it to the kids. (Cliff Richter in turn credited KGH librarian Anita Simic for selecting the Gibbs book for the fair.)
“Once we finished the first book, my dad looked it up, and saw, ‘Oh, there’s more books,’” Ruby said. “We just found what other series there were.”
“Spy School,” Quentin said.
“The FunJungle series,” Ruby said. “And I’m reading the Charlie Thorne series just by myself.”
“I read the series ‘The Last Musketeer.’ Also the series ‘Once Upon a Tim,’” Quentin said. “He’s writing more books for Spy School too.”
Ruby is interested in meeting Gibbs because she wants to become a fiction writer herself.
Sagel said some of the prep work for the author’s visit, the first in years, was a Spy School game at Blatchley. Kids were invited to the library, given copies of “Spy Camp,” and asked to write their name in their book in code.
“Their mission was to read the book and recruit other readers onto their spy team, getting their names into their book,” Sagel said. “On a certain day we called a Code Red. The spy teams were meant to scan the QR code in their book,” Sagel said.
A librarian herself, Sagel said author visits are valuable for several reasons, including promoting reading, “especially with reluctant readers.”
“One author visit can turn a reluctant reader into an avid reader for life,” she said. “That is what my experience as a librarian has shown me. It’s often one event or circumstance that makes a difference – a kid meeting an author, a kid getting excited about a popular book.”
Doors open at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday at Keet for Gibbs’ presentation for the public. Subway sandwiches will be served, and the author’s talk will start at 6 p.m.
Those wanting to donate to the fundraising effort may do so at the website 99pledges.com under “BMS Stuart Gibbs Author Visit”.
