NORTHAMPTON — Two Massachusetts kidlit authors whose works are household names have spooky new books to share — and they’ll be doing so in Northampton in October.
Authors Jeff Kinney, of the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series, and Tony DiTerlizzi, of the “Spiderwick Chronicles” series, will present their newest books at a joint event on Thursday, Oct. 8, at the Academy of Music. At the event, called “Wimpy & Wumpy: A Spooktacular Evening! with Jeff Kinney & Tony DiTerlizzi,” the two authors will participate in fun onstage activities from 6 to 7 p.m., followed by a meet-and-greet photo line from 7 to 8 p.m.
“We cannot believe how lucky we are to help launch these two books into the world,” said Lexi Walters Wright, owner of High Five Books in Florence, which is co-producing the event with the Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity. “Tony and Jeff are two of the biggest names in middle-grade kidlit, and our readers are so excited to get to meet two of their heroes.”
The onstage fun will include a drawing competition between Kinney and DiTerlizzi, games with audience volunteers, and a unique version of the show “Hot Ones,” during which celebrities have to answer questions while eating chicken wings with progressively spicier hot sauces.
“We wanted it to be something fun, something memorable. I think, in this day and age, when a book signing can tend to be a little droll — you either read from the book, or sometimes I’ll draw or do a slideshow — we wanted to create some fun and create memories,” DiTerlizzi said.
Their version of “Hot Ones” will be called “Wild Ones” — and no spoilers, but this version will be gross in a way that kids will likely appreciate.
“I’ll be curious to see who reigns supreme in this version of it,” he said. “It’s horrible what we have to eat!”
DiTerlizzi and his wife Angela, who live in Amherst, worked with Wright to set up a unique local event as part of his book tour for “The Wump.” Kinney, who lives in Plainville, hadn’t done an event at the Academy of Music before, though he has made a few other appearances in the Valley over the years, most recently at R.I.S.E. Fest in May.
“I thought, ‘Well, I’ll be your opening act, and you can be the headliner. I’d be happy to do that.’ So I reached out to Jeff, he was all in, his team was excited about it, and away we went,” DiTerlizzi said.
The two authors have known each other for about 20 years. DiTerlizzi recalled first meeting at the National Book Festival years ago with his “Spiderwick” co-creator Holly Black.
“We were signing ‘Spiderwick’ books, and this guy comes over and he’s like, ‘Oh, I’ve got a new series called ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid.’ And we were like, ‘Oh, good luck! Good luck with your books! I hope it works out for you!’ And then here we are,” DiTerlizzi said with a laugh.
“Jeff’s such a sweet guy,” he continued. “He’s a really nice guy, so supportive of so many authors and illustrators, and I’m happy to share the stage with him.”
“We’re sort of brothers from another mother, as they say. We grew up in the same era. We’re just about the same age. We had the same frame of reference around video games and Dungeons & Dragons and things like that, so we grew up very similarly,” Kinney said. Both of them also released a hit book series within a few years of each other, so they “got to have this really big, life-changing experience at the same time in our lives, and we’ve been tracking each other’s careers along the way and have developed a really solid friendship.”
Kinney’s new book, “Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Spooky Stories 2,” is a collection of spooky short stories imagined by Rowley Jefferson, Greg Heffley’s best friend. Those stories include tales of an amputated pinky trying to find its way back to its person, scary bugs, and the Grim Reaper as a child.
“I really enjoyed writing the first ‘Spooky Stories’ book by Rowley. I like getting into that voice. I like getting into that not-so-scary territory, and the irony of the book is that Rowley’s trying to scare you, but he’s incapable of doing so,” Kinney said.
“There’s a lot of stuff in this book that’s a little bit on the edge, comedy-wise, but it was fun to write,” he added.
DiTerlizzi’s new book, “The Wump,” is about a bullied bug-loving middle-schooler named Timothy Quibble. The namesake “Wump” is his “shadow self,” DiTerlizzi said, which “manifests into a physical entity, a monster that other people can see, and it takes over Tim’s life and starts to seek retribution and revenge — and it’s kind of fun until it’s not.”
DiTerlizzi himself had a difficult time in middle school, too. The book, he said, is “not autobiographical, but it’s definitely the most honest story I’ve ever told.”
“Scary stories for kids are often a way to handle hard feelings, and it feels very affirming to have two books feature gentle boys that other folks don’t take seriously coming out on top,” Wright said.
Kinney and DiTerlizzi both appreciate events like these because of how they engage readers.
“We’re living in, obviously, a social media age right now, an age that’s really dominated by screens, so there’s something anachronistic about [in-person events], in a way, and quite wonderful,” Kinney said.
“Middle-school kids really aren’t reading as much as they used to. … School budgets have been cut; library budgets have been cut, so anything we can do that’s special enough to be at the Academy of Music and is, at its heart, about books and stories — I’m all in,” DiTerlizzi said. “That means so much to me, because reading means so much to me. And the idea of creating books for young readers that don’t feel like homework, that are enticing in a way that kids just want to read these books on their own as opposed to being assigned this book — that’s something that’s very dear to my heart.”
Tickets are $5 to $20, not including fees, via aomtheatre.org. Families who need free tickets should reach out to High Five Books at hello@highfivebooks.org. Both books are available to pre-order at highfivebooks.com. For more information about Jeff Kinney or Tony DiTerlizzi, visit wimpykid.com or diterlizzi.com, respectively.
