Q&A with Children’s Author Fred Bowen

Fred Bowen writes the weekly KidsPost sports column in The Washington Post and is the author of 17 books of sports fiction (ages 8+) and a picture book biography of Red Sox legend Ted Williams titled “No Easy Way.” His latest book, “Perfect Game,” is about the important lessons sports can teach: how to play for the love of the game.

What’s the funniest/scariest/best interaction you’ve had with a fan?
Early in my writing career, I was at a school book fair signing books. A little boy approached me and asked me if I would sign the Garfield the Cat book he had in his hand. I explained that I couldn’t because I didn’t write (or draw) the Garfield books.

I turned to a display of my books and said, “I wrote these books.” The little boy studied my books and said, “But I don’t like those books.” I knew at that moment I was going to have to have a thick skin to be a children’s author.

Another time, I was signing books at the book fair of a Catholic school in Washington D.C.  The reading specialist at the school came over to thank me because my books had made readers out of two of her most “reluctant reader” students. Thinking of my surroundings and my own Catholic school education, I said, “Then I am going straight to heaven.” The reading specialist smiled and said, “If I have anything to say about it you will.”

Did you have a day job? What was it and how did it influence your writing?
I was a lawyer for more than 30 years. I think that experience got me used to writing on deadline as well as organizing a great deal of complex materials to make them simpler and more understandable for a judge. Contrary to what most people think, a good lawyer makes things simpler, not more complex, for his audience.

That is not bad practice for being a kid’s sports writer. I often find myself taking complex and confusing subjects, such as failure, fairness and the 6-4-3 double play, and making them simpler for my readers through my stories and articles. It is at times like that I am glad I was a lawyer.

Why write?
One of the wonderful things about being a children’s writer is that I get to revisit my childhood. As I often tell people, I get to be 12-13 years old every time I write a book. Some of my fondest and also most difficult memories are related to sports and I incorporate those memories in many of my books.

With my columns, I write to discover what I think about a subject. I often tell people that you really do not understand a subject until you have gone through the discipline of putting your thoughts on paper. My columns for the Washington Post require me to do just that.

Why children’s books?
I once heard the Pulitzer Prize winning critic, Michael Dirda, say that children’s books are the only books that really change lives. I think most of us can remember a book, or a series of books, that made us look at the world and ourselves in a different way.

I know it has happened with my books.  A young fan from Chazy New York once wrote me to say he had read “Winners Take All,” a book of mine about honesty.  The young fan said that before he read the book he might not have told the truth if he had been in the same situation as Kyle, the book’s main character. But as he concluded, “Now that I have read this book I would always tell the truth.”

I like to think that my books help kids change for the better by making them think about the world around them and especially the sports they play.