By Jessica Rose
In the nearly 50 years since Gordon Korman published his first book, This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall!, he’s told his one-of-a-kind origin story countless times. But for those who haven’t heard it, it’s a tale worth retelling.
Born in Montreal, where he lived until he was seven, Korman and his family moved to the Downsview area of Toronto and later Thornhill. As a young reader, he loved classic middle-grade fiction: Owls in the Family, The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be, The Great Brain, and The Mad Scientists’ Club. He was in fourth grade when one of his favourites—Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing—was published in 1972.
“That was kind of our book,” he says of Judy Blume’s classic.
Just a few years later, Korman received the school assignment that would catapult his decades-long writing career. That’s when his Grade 7 teacher, Mr. Hamilton, gave him and fellow students the creative freedom to write, write, and write for months on end.
“We had just a redonkulous amount of time to write whatever we wanted,” says Korman, who recalls that Mr. Hamilton was in his first year of teaching and was also training for the Montreal Olympics. He was the only teacher Korman knew to wear sweatpants to class. “He was a cool guy. A little bit different, and definitely not a book guy,” he says, adding that Mr. Hamilton’s specialty was Phys Ed.
It’s in this Grade 7 classroom that This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall!, the first in Korman’s Macdonald Hall series, was written. For nearly half a century, the now-classic has introduced young readers to protagonists Bruno Walton and Melvin “Boots” O'Neal, who share a room at a boarding school east of Toronto.
“I really could have written anything. But it was very natural for me to write sort of a classic old-school middle-grade novel, just because I knew them. I loved them,” says Korman, adding that although he never went to a boarding school, he’d read a lot of British middle-grade books about them. “It didn’t seem that hard for me to adapt my own summer camp experiences,” he says, though, for the record, he wasn’t a big fan of camp.
When the assignment was over, Korman and his peers swapped stories.
“Everyone who read mine was like, dude, this book is as good as anything in the library! Incidentally, that’s still the greatest review I've ever received from anyone,” says Korman, who then had the idea to try to get it published.
One of his first memories of moving to Ontario was seeing Scholastic Book Clubs in class, which weren’t in Quebec. “I’m just going to seem like a total shill for Scholastic, but I really am,” says Korman with a laugh. “I always associated the company and those book clubs with reading.”
And so, at 12, Korman successfully pitched his book to Scholastic, where he’s published ever since, and shortly after his 13th birthday, he signed a contract. A year later, in 1978, This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall! was released.
Nearly five decades later, Korman has written more than 100 books, has sold over 35 million copies worldwide, and his work has been translated into 32 languages. He has a BFA from New York University with a major in dramatic writing and a minor in film and TV.
He now lives on Long Island, outside New York City, with his family.
“One of the things I’ve come to realize is I was impatient waiting for my first book to come out, because I wrote it when I was 12!” says Korman. “It took a year and a half—or close to two years, actually—before it came out. I remember thinking, ‘Why is this so slow? Why are people so bad at their job?’ Which is how a kid would look at it. Now, obviously, from the position I’m at now, I look back and think, something really cool was happening to me. My life was literally changing, and I didn’t allow myself a moment to enjoy it.”
Since then, Korman has had a front-row seat to children’s publishing. He joined CANSCAIP (Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators and Performers) in its infancy, witnessed the golden age of YA, and has seen the industry evolve and change, creating more opportunities for writers to build sustainable careers.
“Between royalties and school visits and Zooms, there are so many people who make a legitimate living as kids' book writers in Canada and the US, too,” he says, adding that it’s a little bit easier in the United States because the market is bigger. “When you do have success, it can pay off in a larger way.”
Korman says that kids’ book writers are doing better work than they’ve ever done. “And they’re certainly doing different kinds of work than used to be thought possible,” he says. “You know, I feel like my grandfather saying, ‘50 years,’ but there are so many things that are different. Publishers are more concerned about what’s new and less concerned about the backlist. Books stay in print and stock less—a shorter time than they used to.”
When asked about some of his career highlights, Korman has many. Among the first, he says, was receiving fan mail for the first time.
“I got a sense, probably around when I went to university in New York—so I was away from the Canadian scene—that my books were really becoming a thing,” he recalls. “I mean, it’s always been a weird notoriety to be a kids’ book writer because no one over the age of 14 has the faintest idea who you are. But I was sort of getting this audience, and that was a really cool feeling, because it’s a very isolating job to be a writer.”
A defining feature of Korman’s books has been fast-paced humour, a storytelling tool he credits to his mom.
“My mom was a big reader. I mean, is still a big reader,” says Korman, mentioning “The Suburban,” a humorous English-language newspaper column his mom wrote in Montreal. “So, I was naturally inclined to try to be funny when I was creative.”
Over the years, he’s gotten better at delivering punchlines that don’t rely on excess.
“When I was a kid writing, it was all overkill. You know, every joke, if it happens once, it’s good. If it happens eight times, that’s eight times as good! As I’ve gotten older, I realize that you actually get more impact for your humour if not everything is hilarious,” he says, finding that the best way to write humour is when it’s used in stories that aren’t necessarily funny. “When you put kids in a serious situation, where they’re being bullied, where they’re fighting for their identity, or they feel like a misfit or always on the outside looking in, and they have real sorrows in their lives. When humour arises, it’s just way more impactful.”
Korman says that when he talks to kid writers, he tells them that writing is excellent for those who enjoy messing with people, because in a lot of ways, you’re manipulating your reader. You’re building them up and leading them in the wrong directions.
“You don’t need your audience to be screaming and howling with mirth at every minute of a story,” he says. “It works with action, too. If every scene is wild action, eventually, wild action loses its impact. But if you have these really quiet, dead moments and then massive excitement ensues, you get so much more. Those are the lessons I’d try to give my younger self,” he says.
Speaking of action, another of Korman’s career highlights began halfway through his career when he began writing adventure series, including the Everest Trilogy, the Dive Trilogy, and the Island Trilogy.
“That was really, really eye-opening for me, because I don’t know why it occurred to me that the kind of stuff I was writing was all I could do. It’s a lot of pressure to be funny, and when you’re writing survival, the tension, the danger, that’s what keeps someone turning pages. They’re not waiting for these regular kinds of laughs and payoffs. It actually felt kind of easier and fun in a different way,” he says.
Another thing that set those books apart was the amount of research they required. “When I tell kids about that, they groan, but actually, research is great because it’s not all coming out of your head, right? It’s there. You just have to find it.”
Korman’s adventure books were successful in Canada and the United States, but nothing in his career has hit as big as The 39 Clues series, the global phenomenon that began with Rick Riordan's The Maze of Bones and followed with Korman’s One False Note, among other titles.
“All the things happened to us, that you always complain never happen when you’re a kids’ book writer,” he says. “We did this webcast for like three-quarters of a million kids. Whoopi Goldberg was the host. We opened the NASDAQ stock exchange; we were on cereal boxes and Amtrak train envelopes.”
Korman says another highlight in his career happened less than a decade ago when YTV made his Macdonald Hall books into a series of three TV movies between 2016 and 2018.
“It was fun for me because it was kind of a victory lap,” he says. “Everybody involved in this production all seemed to be ex-fans. They weren’t just people who this was their job. It turned out that the producer actually wrote me a fan letter when he was in Grade 5. And he still had it! Everybody seemed to have known and grown up with these books. That’s, I think, why the movies are not exact retellings of the story, but they hit the spirit so perfectly. It was just a really cool moment for me.”
Korman’s most recent book, Hypergifted, was released in February, a follow-up to Ungifted and Supergifted, each following Donovan Curtis, Noah Youkilis and their friends from the Academy for Scholastic Distinction.
“I’m kind of stunned by how much there is to write about still,” says Korman. “There’s something about every new book that is just completely unique.”
Since early in his career, Korman has been the kind of writer who does a lot of school visits, meeting countless young readers every year.
“What I say to kids is, ‘Just make writing a part of your life. Make it something that you do every day.’ If you want to be a writer, the time to start writing is always now,” he says, noting that getting work into the world is easier than ever, thanks to blogs, Wattpad, and other self-publishing platforms.
As the 50th anniversary of This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall! approaches, Korman says he feels humble and … a little weird!
“In general, I feel kind of weird about the fact that at my age, at 62, I’m still really doing what I did for my Grade 7 English project. It amazes me, and I really appreciate it. I feel really lucky that I’m still able to do this, and have had a decent amount of success at it.”
With a mix of disbelief and gratitude, Korman reflects on not only his own career, but the bigger picture of children’s literature in Canada and beyond.
“It’s the only 50 years I know,” he says. “I don’t have another 50 historical years to compare it to, but I just feel like it’s been incredible to be part of this ride and to be part of kids' books.”
Jessica Rose is a writer, reviewer and editor in Hamilton, Ontario.