Who is Steven Frank?

Steven B. Frank is the author of Global Warning (Clarion Books, 2023), Class Action (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018) Armstrong & Charlie (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017), and The Pen Commandments: A guide for the beginning writer (Pantheon/Anchor, 2003).

Interview

What was your inspiration for Global Warming? 

As a writer who also teaches, I draw a lot of inspiration from my students. Every year in my class, we write social justice speeches on a topic the students care about: animal rights, immigrant rights, kids’ rights, and LGBTQ rights. Lately I’ve been hearing more and more about the rights of the planet itself. On Earth Day two years ago, our students wanted to participate in a walk-out for the planet. They’re middle schoolers, so the administration said no to an off-campus march. We marched on campus instead. I remember thinking, these kids need a bigger stage for their protest.

How did you choose which character to focus the story? 

My first book with these characters–Class Action–was Sam’s book. He’s the boy who gets suspended for refusing to do his homework and goes to the Supreme Court to argue that children have the right to a childhood. For Global Warning I turned to Alistair. Alistair is a young chef–he won the MasterChef, Jr. competition–and has a deep respect for Earth’s produce. He’s also crushing on climate activist Greta Thunberg and has given up meat for her. Sam still narrates the book, but Alistair leads the team.

What was your process for writing for Global Warming? 

Global Warning was my Covid book, written in the extra pool of time I had while in lockdown. I was teaching on Zoom, not having to commute to work, less distracted by the “outside world.” I did a lot of online research about the warming planet, read books about Svalbard, where the global seed bank is, and laid the whole book on my dining room table, a mesh of index cards that served as an outline for the writing, which happened fast.

Was your process different from writing Class Action? 

Class Action has a more personal origin story. It began with a sound like twigs being snapped in half inside our home. That was sound of my daughter breaking number 2 pencils in frustration as she struggled with her nightly sudoku homework in 3rd grade. I remembered my own carefree childhood in Laurel Canyon–building forts, riding bikes, making movies and inventing games. It was an unplanned childhood, with freedom to wander, to wonder. I decided to gather the broken pieces of my daughter’s pencil and put them to use in the making of a book.

What is your approach to world and character building? 

Most of my characters spring from the people in my life. My first novel for young readers–Armstrong & Charlie–was directly inspired by a boy named Kivi who was bused into my elementary school in the 1970s. Other kids in that book are come from that schoolyard, those classrooms, that I remember from childhood. Sam is a hybrid of my two older kids. Alistair has the spirit (and cooking obsession) of a boy who was my student. Mr. Kalman, in sprit, is a version of my Uncle Irv. Betty is my political-junkie mother-in-law who really does live at the Noho Senior Arts Colony. And then there are characters who get dreamed up from the subconscious mind we all share.

How would you describe Global Warming in five words? 

Kids fix what adults broke.

Did you have a favourite moment to write? 

I need extreme solitude to really write. It comes early in the morning while the coffee is still hot in the mug, or during Fall Break when I escape to our summer home in Washington state. And on weekends, of course. When else can a teacher write?

What was your favourite book growing up? 

The World Book Encyclopedia, Volume D, specifically the pages devoted to dogs.

Do you have a favourite genre to read? 

Nature writing. An Immense World, Braiding Sweetgrass, and The Hidden Life of Trees are a few favorites. Also every essay written by Margaret Renkl. And poetry. I need a poem a day like I need my morning coffee.