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Speaker 1: Good morning, Gordon. How are you doing today?

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Speaker 2: Doing great?

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Speaker 1: How are you fantastic? What was it like for you

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to put the pages together in this book, because I

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mean you really put your listeners and your readers right

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there in front of something that really can be going on.

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It's one of those books where you go, Wow, this

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could actually happen.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Well, I mean that to me has been kind of

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the core of like realistic fiction for kids, right. I

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think the kids have a much better willing suspension of

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disbelief than adults do, and so putting together Snoop, I

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mean I was originally inspired by the old Alfred Hitchcock

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movie Rear Window.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so I was.

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Speaker 3: Kind of trying to create like a rear window for

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kids in twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 2: But the thing is that in Rear Window.

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Speaker 3: Which was a nineteen fifty two movie snoop, snooping basically

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was looking at the window. But we have so much

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technology today there's really never been a better time, or

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possibly a worse one, to be a snoop for listeners.

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Speaker 1: Carter is a people watcher, and he knows something's going

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wrong inside his hometown. And I love the fact that

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you put it in a small hometown, and the reason

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why is because I've always believed that's where the darkest

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parts of this nation are, the small hometowns.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, it seems like the weirder the stuff the closer

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you look. In the case of a snoop, it turns

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out to be a endangered animal smuggling ring.

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Speaker 2: But I think Carter gets there.

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Speaker 3: By absolutely the most believable seventh grade path, which is

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he's stuck at home with two broken legs. He is

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completely isolated from his class and his school, doing everything remotely,

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and there's a rumor that the girl he's had a

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crush on since kindergarten is cozy enough to his arch enemy.

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And he realizes that they pass by a public security

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camera that can be accessed by anybody as they walk

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to school every single day, and he starts snooping on

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them through this camera, and that's how he just gets hooked.

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Speaker 2: Well.

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Speaker 1: But the thing about it is is that it's so

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real in the way that there's going to be people

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that are going to read this book and say, I

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want to be able to do this. I want to

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be able to watch either that or they're going to

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grab their smartphones and go out there and just do

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it themselves.

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Speaker 3: Well, I think that part of the arc of the

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story is that Carter really comes to the point where

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he has to sort of say, my life is crashing

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because of this kind of snoop that I have become. Right,

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and he is not the kid with the most will

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power in the world. He certainly gives into it. He's

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a pretty tech addicted kid in general. But he just

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reaches this moment where I mean, I guess the old

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saying is when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging, right,

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he has to reach that moment in snow.

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Speaker 1: How did he keep it together inside the storylines because

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it had to live in you first. But I mean,

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to spy on your neighbors is pretty serious because I

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wouldn't have the confidence or the guts to do that

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and then keep my mouth shut.

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Speaker 2: Well, I feel like.

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Speaker 3: I feel like it builds slowly, so he doesn't start off,

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you know.

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Speaker 2: I think that the way it.

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Speaker 3: Sort of unfolds before him, it's like, well, I'm not spying,

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I'm just checking to see if this rumor is true

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about a couple of classmates. And then you sort of

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see a few other things and that catches your interest,

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and then he starts to see these animals around town

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that really have no business being in that part of

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world at all, a red.

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Speaker 2: Panda, swift fox, a.

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Speaker 3: Two toned sloth, does a little bit of research and

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realizes these are all endangered species, Like, what what are

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they doing in my random kind of sleepy suburban town.

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And then he can't stop snooping right because in a

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lot of ways he's he's helping these animals that are

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that are facing extinction. But ultimately he manages to piece

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together kind of the details of an endangered animal smuggling

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ring taking place right under the nose of his community,

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and he, because he's the only Snoop, is the only

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one who can see it.

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Speaker 1: My god, this reminds me so much of a conversation

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I had with a podcaster recently, and the whole entire

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thing is based on how it's not the police department,

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it's not the people of law that are that are,

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you know, going out there and solving crimes. It's people

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such as Carter. It's that makes it away to other people.

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And maybe that's the reason why I'm so inspired by

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Snoop is the fact that you're teaching people don't just

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play games on your smartphone, do something with it and

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become an activator.

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Speaker 3: Well, it is kind of you know, like I guess

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afraid if you see something, say something right. But I

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think what happens with Carter is he gets squeezed because

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he's already in trouble for snooping too much, but he's

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discovered this terrible thing going on. How can he possibly

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bring it to light without admitting that he's snooping even more?

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Speaker 1: Could you do it?

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Speaker 2: I hope, I hope so, I hope.

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Speaker 3: So it is, but you do have to sacrifice something

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of yourself, and especially like I think the difference is

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I could do it because I'm an adult, and I

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feel like youoner or later, you know, there may be

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some some problems, but eventually I could, I could explain

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what's going on.

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Speaker 2: But I think kids are.

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Speaker 3: So much less empowered than we are. And I think that,

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I mean, certainly in his town, the police don't listen

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to Carter at all.

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Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Gordon Corman coming

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up next. The name of the book is Snoop from

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Gordon Corman. There's a lot of young readers right now

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that will sit there and say because they don't care

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about us, say, and so he must feel something like

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that in the way that because you're a kid, we

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were not interested in what you have to say.

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Speaker 2: Or we're not interested and we don't take it serious, right, right, right?

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Speaker 3: I mean, I think if they would be interested, if

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they took it seriously, but they just assume, you know

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that this is basically I mean, there is an element

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you know, you could sort of say, well, some of

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it's very modern because the technology is very twenty twenty

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five in that way, but some of it is also

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he is he's kind of the boy who cried Wolf, right,

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He's reported all these things, and eventually the police just decide,

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we're not listening to this kid anymore.

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Speaker 1: Well, do you think your connection with y A readers

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is because you started writing while you were a freshman.

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Speaker 2: I think it helps.

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Speaker 3: You know, I'm pretty old now, so I don't know

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that a lot of kids look at me and they'll

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be like, oh, he's one of me, you know, he's

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one of us. But you know, I think that one

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of the reasons why I've always written very, very kids

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friendly books has been the fact that I started writing

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when I was you know, My first book came out

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when I was a freshman in high school.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And the reason why I find that inspiring is

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because it was because of what I was writing, where

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the teacher said, look, please come back to school, do

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not drop out. We will let you write in class.

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Just do it and just be present and so we

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can get you that graduation.

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Speaker 3: Right, Okay, I mean that's I mean that shows a

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fantastic I think school to sort of recognize that the educators,

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you know, some of them, they just sort of know

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who they're dealing with, they know who their kids are.

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They really deal with them one by one as people.

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Speaker 2: For me, it was more like random. My first book

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was a school project.

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Speaker 3: The track and field coach had to teach English and

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he never taught English before, so when it came to

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creative writing, he just gave us absolute freedom to write

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whatever we wanted.

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Speaker 2: Class period of day it was February, right, So from

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February to June, I had forty two minutes or forty

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five minutes or whatever it was to write one story.

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Speaker 3: And that's how I wrote the first draft of my

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first book.

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Speaker 1: Wow. Wow, is there a site of your creative personality

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that I would like to see Snoop become either a

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film or a BINGEOA.

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Speaker 2: I could see it. You know.

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Speaker 3: I've had a few things made into movies over the years,

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and it's always been a really interesting and gratifying experience,

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and I think Snoop is exactly the kind of story

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that would would translate easily to film.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, Where can people go to find out more about you, Gordon,

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Because I mean, ten minutes with you is never enough time,

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So I want people to go in there and dive

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in and really give you some love and support.

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Speaker 2: Well, my website is Gordoncorman dot com and I'll be

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going on.

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Speaker 3: Tour for Snoop, visiting bookstores around the country, so I'll

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give all the details of that, and hopefully i'll see

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you on the road.

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Speaker 1: Are you coming down to the Carolinas, mister Gordon.

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Speaker 3: Not on this particular tour. I think Atlanta is the

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closest I'm gonna get. But there are some fantastic stick

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bookstores in your area that I've had a chance to visit.

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Speaker 2: Over the course of the years.

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Speaker 3: I also love speaking in school, yes, and that is

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first of all an amazing way to meet your readers.

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But you also you hear what gets the big glass

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and what gets the introspective chuckle, and what gets the

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you think that's funny?

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Speaker 2: That makes one of.

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Speaker 3: Us I think, men, that's important research for someone who

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writes for kids.

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Speaker 1: Wow, you sometimes you've got to come down to imagine

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on here and Charlotte. And the reason why is because

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they have an entire section for YA readers. And I

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love going in there and looking at all the authors

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that I've been blessed to share conversations with. And I

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know your book is going to be placed inside that library.

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Speaker 2: Fantastic. Absolutely, I hope you can make it happen.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely. Will you be brilliant today?

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Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, thank you so much for having me.

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Speaker 1: You bet