What’s the Deal with Stuart Gibbs?

 What’s the Deal with Stuart Gibbs? 

Stuart Gibbs in an Interview

    I first read a book by Stuart Gibbs when I was in fifth grade. The first book of his that I read was Belly Up. As I was reading through the book, I noticed that I enjoyed the plot and the author’s writing style. After finishing Belly Up, I soon found myself craving more Stuart Gibbs books. As I was reading through all of his books, I kept wondering about the author himself: how does he get the ideas to write these books? As he starts the story, his ideas seem realistic, yet over the course of his books, he always pushes  realism to the absolute limit. As I started this school year, I revisited some of his books, and I found that my interest in his writing hadn’t diminished. Then it occurred to me: this would be perfect for our blog, and a way to let me scour the internet about a topic that I would have otherwise considered a waste of time. 

The Day the Dinosaurs Came Back Cover

    Not only are his books interesting, but so is his career. When he was young, he had already fallen in love with reading and writing. In an interview, he said “I was starting to write stories as soon as I can read stories.” He wrote his first book in kindergarten called The Day the Dinosaurs Came Back, with the help of his librarian. (He was obsessed with dinosaurs at the time.) Even though the book was never published, it was put into circulation at the library for people in his school to check out. Some of his favorite books include The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, multiple books by Roald Dahl, and Encyclopedia Brown by Donald J. Sobol. As a kid, he loved animals, writing, and soccer, and these interests show up in a series he has written called FunJungle that has to do with animals. As he grew older, he developed an avid interest in biology, and aspired to be a field biologist one day. While he was in college, studying biology, they went to the zoo one day to choose an animal to write about for their thesis. Mr. Gibbs chose the capybara, because he had heard a little bit about them. Little did he know, no one in the U.S. had ever researched them, and within days, he became the most knowledgeable person about capybaras in the whole country. When he turned in his thesis, he was told that his was one of the best theses that they had ever seen. Soon, he had moved on to writing screenplays in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. His movies include

Anastasia (1997)

See Spot Run, Repli-Kate and Showdown. Mr. Gibbs also has worked on numerous animated projects, such as Anastasia, Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, and Open Season 3. On top of all that, he has developed TV shows for broadcasters like Disney, Fox, ABC, and Nickelodeon, but they sadly haven’t aired.
    Now, you may be wondering, “I thought you said this guy was an author.” Honestly, that is a great point, and let's talk about that. According to Mr. Gibbs, his journey to becoming an author started one day when he was selling a screenplay in Los Angeles. After selling it to an agent, the agent mentioned that their company has a book department. When he heard this, he asked soon after if he would be able to talk to someone about writing a novel. He got in contact with Jennifer Joel, an agent in the book department. She asked him if he could write a novel meant for middle-schoolers. And with that, his first novel, called Belly Up, was created. Surprisingly, Mr. Gibbs’s original plan was to write Belly Up as an adult novel. This idea was scrapped as the publisher wanted a novel that was geared toward middle schoolers.

Spy School Series

Before we delve into the vast sea of novels by Mr. Gibbs, I would like to acknowledge that all of these books are amazing, and I would highly recommend reading them. Let’s start with his most well-known series, Spy School. 

    Spy School is about a 12-year-old boy named Ben Ripley. This book is a tale of his life, starting from when he is recruited by the CIA to be a spy in training. He encounters multiple unorthodox ways of learning, and he is put to the test over the course of the story as he encounters multiple near-death experiences.   

FunJungle Series

Next is FunJungle, which is about a boy named Teddy Fitzroy who just moved to the nation’s largest zoo, FunJungle. When he had moved, he expected there to be the rare mishap, but nothing too crazy. Boy, how wrong could he be. As mysterious murders and burglaries plague the zoo, it is up to Teddy to solve the mysteries. 

Moon Base Alpha Series

Then, Mr. Gibbs wrote Moon Base Alpha, which is about a boy named Dashiell Gibson, who has moved to space, as a part of the government-funded Moon Base Alpha expedition. But soon, a doctor with a secret dies, and it is up to Dashiell to uncover the secret.    

Charlie Thorne Series

    Finally, his newest series is Charlie Thorne, about a girl with a brain comparable to Albert Einstein’s. I forgot to mention that she is only 12! Oddly enough, the government is trying to crack Einstein’s secret equation called Pandora, which would be able to provide sustainable energy for years to come. But as enemy territory starts to close in on the equation, the CIA puts their trust in Charlie Thorne. As she is pulled into this mission, she realizes the reason Einstein hid it all those years ago, and has to protect the equation from everyone in the world, so nobody with malicious intentions can get to it. His stories are incredibly fun and feel like movies. But just because they are easy to read doesn’t mean they were easy to write. How did he do it?
    When Mr. Gibbs talks about writing, he likes to point out that the process of writing a single book can take years. He starts by creating an outline, and will not move on to the writing until he has finished the outline. This process itself takes him about one to two years. Then he starts writing the first draft, which he says takes from three to six months. Sometimes, he will deviate from the outline if he feels that the change can enhance the story. He usually writes about eight to ten drafts in total. Only after that will he think about publishing the draft. Some tips that he gives for other writers are to start by gathering your ideas on a notepad, and just put everything on paper, to start the writing process. Also, in Mr. Gibbs’s writing, he says that he is able to make the setting more descriptive in his books because he always had to think in a visual manner while he was writing screenplays, and he has carried that technique into his writing. He tells people to put as much effort into your description of the setting as you would for the main plot to enhance the reading experience. When you are done with your drafts, he recommends sending them off to your peers, as they could be able to give you ideas on how you could improve the descriptions of characters or the story in general. An example is when he was writing the Charlie Thorne series, he asked fellow author Sarah Mlynowski to read over the story as it was this first book where he had a female protagonist, and she was able to point out many nuances that he had overlooked. 
    After reading (almost) all about Mr. Gibbs in about three pages, you might think you have wasted part of your day. But in my humble opinion, I think that you can take something away from this text, keeping in mind that your opinion doesn’t have to agree, and that I am writing this, so I am a little bit biased. Anyway, you might have some new books that you want to read, you might have new ways to tackle writing the next thing that Mr. Mitchell assigns us, or you might just have learned something new. If you didn’t, sorry for wasting your time, and thanks for reading this. Goodbye.
-Sri