Gratz was a recipient of an SCBWI grant–the Kimberly Colen grant–in 2003, and his first young adult novel, Samurai Shortstop, came out in 2006.

I’ve read only two of his books so far, the two Horatio Wilkes mysteries, Something Rotten, and Something Wicked, and I wanted to write book reviews for the two books. Unfortunately, I don’t feel like I can do them justice. I’ve never read Shakespeare so I’m guessing I’m missing some inside jokes. I enjoyed both books immensely even without having any background in Shakespeare’s works, but I feel like if I try to write reviews I’ll miss something important.

And I have another confession to make–I wanted to interview Mr. Gratz, but the day before I had him penciled into my schedule, my dad took a tumble from his wheelchair and broke his hip. So I didn’t get the interview. I’m bummed about that because I had a lot of questions I wanted to ask. I wanted to ask about his road to publishing, about what role the SCBWI award played (yes, I’m very interested in that–wondering if I’ll have a book published in three years, now) and I wanted to ask about the sex in the books, I wanted to ask about conservation, and about teen alcoholism, and teen violence…

Well, maybe he’ll give me an interview one of these days.

So I’ll keep trying to write reviews and to think of interview questions. But for today I’d like to give you a couple of links of interest. The more I read about Mr. Gratz, the more I like him. He’s smart and funny (of course I knew that because Horatio is smart and funny–made, at least that far, in the image of his creator, it appears).

So here are three links to get you started in your quest to learn more about Alan Gratz and Horatio Wilkes:

• For Readers Powell’s Books, Tech Q&A
• For Writers Interview on Cynsations
• For Teachers Something Rotten Reader Guide and  Something Wicked Reader Guide

Please go and visit other sites on the blog tour:

the 160acrewoods, A Christian Worldview of Fiction, All About Children’s Books, Becky’s Book Reviews, Book Review Maniac, By the Book Reviews, Cafe of Dreams, Dolce Bellezza, Hyperbole, KidzBookBuzz.com, Looking Glass Reviews, Maggie Reads, Never Jam Today, Reading is My Superpower