MIDDLETOWN – Inspired by eavesdropped conversations and her sons’ senses of humor, author Sarah Weeks has written a number of children’s books, one that has even been turned into a movie.
Weeks’s 59 picture books and novels include “Save Me a Seat,” “So B. It,” “Pie,” “Glamourpuss,” “As Simple as It Seems,” “Mrs.McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash,” “Jumping the Scratch,” “Honey,” “Two Eggs Please,” “Mac and Cheese” and “The Perfect Plan.”
“I’ve been doing author visits for almost 30 years, visiting between 10- and 20,000 K-8th grade students in schools every year. I was contacted by a member of the Nut Swamp Elementary PTO about paying them a visit this year and was delighted to be able to say yes,” Weeks said at Nut Swamp Elementary School in Middletown on Jan. 19, during which she met with more than 100 fourth and fifth graders about how she turned her novel “So B. It” into a movie.
“So B. It” was her first book that has been adapted into a movie. The screenwriter for the film was Garry Williams, the director was Stephen Gyllenhaal and the producer was J. Todd Harris.
“‘So B. It was published in 2004. It’s a story about an 11-year-old girl named Heidi who has a mentally challenged mother who only says 23 words. One of those words is “soof,” and no one knows what it means. So she goes on a cross country journey to find the meaning of the word,” Weeks said.
Weeks said she enjoyed working with the cast and crew and loved the fact that Williams worked with her on the screenplay to rightfully transform the novel into a movie.
“I am absolutely thrilled with the ‘So B. It’ movie. The screenplay, written by Garry Williams, is very true to the book and the wonderful cast, including Alfre Woodard and Talitha Bateman, brings my characters to life beautifully,” Weeks said.
After filming the movie for six weeks, Weeks said, “At the end of the shoot it was really hard to say goodbye because we all had become so close.”
The film opened in theaters in October of 2017, with sold out premieres in New York and Los Angeles. Now the film is available on DVD and VOD through Amazon and iTunes. In the spring the movie will expand to other platforms as well, according to Weeks.
Born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Weeks said that she currently lives in Nyack, New York.
“I have loved reading and writing ever since I was very young child. I began my writing career as a singer-songwriter in New York City in the 1970s. One of my earliest jobs was writing a couple of songs for ‘Sesame Street,'” Weeks said. “An editor at a publishing house heard those songs and suggested that I try my hand at writing picture books. My first book was called ‘Hurricane City,’ and it was published by HarperCollins in 1993.”
Being a mother of two boys, Weeks said that when her sons were little, she fell in love with her boys’ senses of humor.
“The way that they talked to each other, teased each other, the names that they called each other, absolutely have inspired many of my books. I love reading about boys, I love that boy sense of humor,” Weeks said.
Weeks said that she needs complete quiet when she is writing and that she is always looking for new ideas for her next book.
“I love to go to Starbucks. I go for two reasons: number one, to drink coffee, and number two, to eavesdrop. … When you are someone like me who writes realistic fiction, eavesdropping is research,” Weeks said. “I am a people watcher. I love to watch people and see the way they behavior. If I have to write a scene where there are two people arguing, I get to know what they look like. I am always watching to see what’s going on around me.”
Weeks most recently published book, “Save Me a Seat,” was co-written by Gita Varadarjan. Varadarjan was one of her former students that she taught at a writing workshop at Columbia University.
“Save Me a Seat” is a story about two fifth grade boys named Ravi and Joe. Ravi grew up in India and was at the top of his class. Joe grew up in New Jersey and goes to the resource room a his school for extra help. By the end of the first week Joe and Ravi become friends with a little help from a pair of boxer shorts, a jar of leeches and a double peanut M&M, according to Weeks.
Weeks said that when Varadarjan was her student, she would only call her by her first and not her full name, because she was afraid that she would say it wrong.
After practicing to pronounce her name fanatically Weeks said, “Then one day I called her at home and I said ‘Hi is this Gita Varadarjan?’ and you know what happened – she burst into tears. I said ‘I am so sorry Gita did I say it wrong?’ and she said, ‘No you said it right.’ She said that she has lived in this country for two years and no one has ever bothered to learn how to say [her] name.”
During her presentation, Weeks said that she learned how important and powerful it is to learn how to pronounce a person’s name and for everyone to take the time to learn how to pronounce someone’s name.
As a sequel for “So B. It,” Weeks has written the novel “Soof” which will be published this fall.
She has also written another picture book called “Lizzy McTizzy” which will be coming out in the winter of 2019 from HarperCollins, according to Weeks.
After showing the movie trailer for “So B. It,” Weeks answered questions students had about her work and the film.
“I don’t encourage kids to write books with the intention of being published. There’s plenty of time for that later down the line,” Weeks said. “For children who wish to write stories, the very best advice I can offer is to read, read, read. It also helps to have people to share your writing with family members, teachers and classmates.”
For more information on Weeks, visit www.sarahweeks.com/bio-pages/about-me/.
Contact Vashti Harris at vharris@newspapermeidiagroup.com.
