Speaker 1: Good morning, Gordon. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2: Doing great?
Speaker 1: How are you fantastic? What was it like for you
to put the pages together in this book, because I
mean you really put your listeners and your readers right
there in front of something that really can be going on.
It's one of those books where you go, Wow, this
could actually happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean that to me has been kind of
the core of like realistic fiction for kids, right. I
think the kids have a much better willing suspension of
disbelief than adults do, and so putting together Snoop, I
mean I was originally inspired by the old Alfred Hitchcock
movie Rear Window.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so I was.
Speaker 3: Kind of trying to create like a rear window for
kids in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: But the thing is that in Rear Window.
Speaker 3: Which was a nineteen fifty two movie snoop, snooping basically
was looking at the window. But we have so much
technology today there's really never been a better time, or
possibly a worse one, to be a snoop for listeners.
Speaker 1: Carter is a people watcher, and he knows something's going
wrong inside his hometown. And I love the fact that
you put it in a small hometown, and the reason
why is because I've always believed that's where the darkest
parts of this nation are, the small hometowns.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, it seems like the weirder the stuff the closer
you look. In the case of a snoop, it turns
out to be a endangered animal smuggling ring.
Speaker 2: But I think Carter gets there.
Speaker 3: By absolutely the most believable seventh grade path, which is
he's stuck at home with two broken legs. He is
completely isolated from his class and his school, doing everything remotely,
and there's a rumor that the girl he's had a
crush on since kindergarten is cozy enough to his arch enemy.
And he realizes that they pass by a public security
camera that can be accessed by anybody as they walk
to school every single day, and he starts snooping on
them through this camera, and that's how he just gets hooked.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: But the thing about it is is that it's so
real in the way that there's going to be people
that are going to read this book and say, I
want to be able to do this. I want to
be able to watch either that or they're going to
grab their smartphones and go out there and just do
it themselves.
Speaker 3: Well, I think that part of the arc of the
story is that Carter really comes to the point where
he has to sort of say, my life is crashing
because of this kind of snoop that I have become. Right,
and he is not the kid with the most will
power in the world. He certainly gives into it. He's
a pretty tech addicted kid in general. But he just
reaches this moment where I mean, I guess the old
saying is when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging, right,
he has to reach that moment in snow.
Speaker 1: How did he keep it together inside the storylines because
it had to live in you first. But I mean,
to spy on your neighbors is pretty serious because I
wouldn't have the confidence or the guts to do that
and then keep my mouth shut.
Speaker 2: Well, I feel like.
Speaker 3: I feel like it builds slowly, so he doesn't start off,
you know.
Speaker 2: I think that the way it.
Speaker 3: Sort of unfolds before him, it's like, well, I'm not spying,
I'm just checking to see if this rumor is true
about a couple of classmates. And then you sort of
see a few other things and that catches your interest,
and then he starts to see these animals around town
that really have no business being in that part of
world at all, a red.
Speaker 2: Panda, swift fox, a.
Speaker 3: Two toned sloth, does a little bit of research and
realizes these are all endangered species, Like, what what are
they doing in my random kind of sleepy suburban town.
And then he can't stop snooping right because in a
lot of ways he's he's helping these animals that are
that are facing extinction. But ultimately he manages to piece
together kind of the details of an endangered animal smuggling
ring taking place right under the nose of his community,
and he, because he's the only Snoop, is the only
one who can see it.
Speaker 1: My god, this reminds me so much of a conversation
I had with a podcaster recently, and the whole entire
thing is based on how it's not the police department,
it's not the people of law that are that are,
you know, going out there and solving crimes. It's people
such as Carter. It's that makes it away to other people.
And maybe that's the reason why I'm so inspired by
Snoop is the fact that you're teaching people don't just
play games on your smartphone, do something with it and
become an activator.
Speaker 3: Well, it is kind of you know, like I guess
afraid if you see something, say something right. But I
think what happens with Carter is he gets squeezed because
he's already in trouble for snooping too much, but he's
discovered this terrible thing going on. How can he possibly
bring it to light without admitting that he's snooping even more?
Speaker 1: Could you do it?
Speaker 2: I hope, I hope so, I hope.
Speaker 3: So it is, but you do have to sacrifice something
of yourself, and especially like I think the difference is
I could do it because I'm an adult, and I
feel like youoner or later, you know, there may be
some some problems, but eventually I could, I could explain
what's going on.
Speaker 2: But I think kids are.
Speaker 3: So much less empowered than we are. And I think that,
I mean, certainly in his town, the police don't listen
to Carter at all.
Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Gordon Corman coming
up next. The name of the book is Snoop from
Gordon Corman. There's a lot of young readers right now
that will sit there and say because they don't care
about us, say, and so he must feel something like
that in the way that because you're a kid, we
were not interested in what you have to say.
Speaker 2: Or we're not interested and we don't take it serious, right, right, right?
Speaker 3: I mean, I think if they would be interested, if
they took it seriously, but they just assume, you know
that this is basically I mean, there is an element
you know, you could sort of say, well, some of
it's very modern because the technology is very twenty twenty
five in that way, but some of it is also
he is he's kind of the boy who cried Wolf, right,
He's reported all these things, and eventually the police just decide,
we're not listening to this kid anymore.
Speaker 1: Well, do you think your connection with y A readers
is because you started writing while you were a freshman.
Speaker 2: I think it helps.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm pretty old now, so I don't know
that a lot of kids look at me and they'll
be like, oh, he's one of me, you know, he's
one of us. But you know, I think that one
of the reasons why I've always written very, very kids
friendly books has been the fact that I started writing
when I was you know, My first book came out
when I was a freshman in high school.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And the reason why I find that inspiring is
because it was because of what I was writing, where
the teacher said, look, please come back to school, do
not drop out. We will let you write in class.
Just do it and just be present and so we
can get you that graduation.
Speaker 3: Right, Okay, I mean that's I mean that shows a
fantastic I think school to sort of recognize that the educators,
you know, some of them, they just sort of know
who they're dealing with, they know who their kids are.
They really deal with them one by one as people.
Speaker 2: For me, it was more like random. My first book
was a school project.
Speaker 3: The track and field coach had to teach English and
he never taught English before, so when it came to
creative writing, he just gave us absolute freedom to write
whatever we wanted.
Speaker 2: Class period of day it was February, right, So from
February to June, I had forty two minutes or forty
five minutes or whatever it was to write one story.
Speaker 3: And that's how I wrote the first draft of my
first book.
Speaker 1: Wow. Wow, is there a site of your creative personality
that I would like to see Snoop become either a
film or a BINGEOA.
Speaker 2: I could see it. You know.
Speaker 3: I've had a few things made into movies over the years,
and it's always been a really interesting and gratifying experience,
and I think Snoop is exactly the kind of story
that would would translate easily to film.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Where can people go to find out more about you, Gordon,
Because I mean, ten minutes with you is never enough time,
So I want people to go in there and dive
in and really give you some love and support.
Speaker 2: Well, my website is Gordoncorman dot com and I'll be
going on.
Speaker 3: Tour for Snoop, visiting bookstores around the country, so I'll
give all the details of that, and hopefully i'll see
you on the road.
Speaker 1: Are you coming down to the Carolinas, mister Gordon.
Speaker 3: Not on this particular tour. I think Atlanta is the
closest I'm gonna get. But there are some fantastic stick
bookstores in your area that I've had a chance to visit.
Speaker 2: Over the course of the years.
Speaker 3: I also love speaking in school, yes, and that is
first of all an amazing way to meet your readers.
But you also you hear what gets the big glass
and what gets the introspective chuckle, and what gets the
you think that's funny?
Speaker 2: That makes one of.
Speaker 3: Us I think, men, that's important research for someone who
writes for kids.
Speaker 1: Wow, you sometimes you've got to come down to imagine
on here and Charlotte. And the reason why is because
they have an entire section for YA readers. And I
love going in there and looking at all the authors
that I've been blessed to share conversations with. And I
know your book is going to be placed inside that library.
Speaker 2: Fantastic. Absolutely, I hope you can make it happen.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Will you be brilliant today?
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: You bet