CHRIS GRABENSTEIN

Is the Smartest Author in the Universe

by Melissa Fales

Chris Grabenstein has written over 50 children’s books, including his New York Times bestselling Mr. Lemoncello series. Grabenstein’s latest, Genius Camp, is the second in his Smartest Kid in the Universe series, starring Jake McQuade: an average 12-year-old boy who becomes extraordinary after ingesting knowledge capsules he mistakes for jellybeans. When Grabenstein launched his career as an author, he wrote for adults until an editor suggested one manuscript be rewritten for a middle grade audience. “That book was The Crossroads, and it went on to win an Agatha and Anthony Award for best mystery for kids,” says Grabenstein. “While writing that book, I discovered my inner 12-year-old and realized that was the audience I was meant to write for.”

Despite his best efforts, a young Grabenstein never wowed anyone with his athletic skills. “But I liked to make my friends (and teachers) laugh,” he says. “Sometimes I’d do this with comic books I wrote and drew that I’d pass around in class. I guess those were my first “published” books.” Even at a young age, Grabenstein had a vivid imagination. “I could play basketball in our driveway all by myself and turn it into the most exciting championship game ever played, complete with sound effects, and do it all in my head,” he says. “By the way, in those imaginary games, I was excellent at sports.” 

As a young adult, Grabenstein moved to New York City and joined an improv comedy group where he developed a quick wit. “You make up stories, songs, and skits from audience suggestions,” he says. “You have to create something wonderful right away.” Grabenstein worked with some big names. “Bruce Willis, Kathy Kinney (from The Drew Carey Show), and Jane Brucker (the little sister in Dirty Dancing),” he lists. “The late Robin Williams loved doing improv and would jump onstage and perform with us whenever he was in New York City filming a movie.” Grabenstein says the experience proved invaluable to his writing skills. “I still use the ‘Yes, and ...’ technique of improv when I write my first drafts,” he says. “It’s a great tool for conquering writer’s block.”

One fateful day, an aptitude test in the New York Times with the attention-grabbing title “Write if You Want Work” caught Grabenstein’s eye. “It was full of fun questions like ‘How would you sell a telephone to a Trappist monk who had taken a strict vow of silence?’ says Grabenstein. “I convinced him he’d need the phone to connect to Monkmail, a new kind of email for silent monks only.” The man behind the test and those unusual questions was James Patterson. “Yes, that James Patterson,” says Grabenstein. “Before he became the world-record holder for the most No. 1 New York Times bestsellers ever, he wrote commercials and ran the entire creative department at one of New York’s biggest advertising agencies.”

When Grabenstein eventually left the advertising world, he planned on writing screenplays, believing they were similar to the TV commercials he had worked on. He credits Stephen King’s On Writing with bolstering his confidence enough to try writing a book. “I also remembered that my first boss, James Patterson, had a pretty good second career as an author after he left Madison Avenue,” says Grabenstein. “That made me realize that there might be a connection between attention-grabbing commercials and page-turning books. So, in a way, James Patterson, with whom I’m now a co-author, was my inspiration for becoming an author!”

Grabenstein and Patterson reunited to co-author dozens of books, such as I Funny, Max Einstein, and Treasure Hunters. “He comes up with all the ideas and creates a 30- to 40-page outline for the stories, where all the twists and turns and characters are plotted out,” says Grabenstein. “I work with that outline and send him about 10,000 words a month. We then chat on the phone about those 10,000 words. In the best calls, he says, ‘Great, keep going.’ The worst calls? He says, ‘Do you have a pen and a pad of paper handy?’ because there are going to be a lot of notes. I guess you could say I write the first draft based on his outline, and then he does the final draft by himself.” Grabenstein also co-wrote Shine with his wife, J.J. Grabenstein.

For Grabenstein, transitioning from advertising to writing for children was relatively easy. “In advertising, we dealt with short attention spans,” he says. “We had to grab the viewer's or listener’s attention in the first few seconds of our commercials, or they would click their remote and change the channel. I think that attention-grabbing skill has come in quite handy writing for 8- to 12-year-olds.”

Case in point, his popular Mr. Lemoncello series. “The first book was nominated for more than 40 state book awards and won more than 20 of ’em,” says Grabenstein. “It was in the top ten of the New York Times bestseller list for over hundred weeks; it’s been translated into dozens of languages; there are over one million copies of the first book in print; and it was turned into a movie on Nickelodeon.” There have been four more books in the series. 

Grabenstein’s Smartest Kid in the Universe series has also garnered quite a following. In the second installment, Genius Camp, “Jake McQuade has been declared the smartest kid in the universe—and now he’s back to defend his title,” says Grabenstein. This time, Jake is attending a summer camp for geniuses. This isn’t your usual summer camp with arts and crafts, rustic lodging, and campfire singalongs. This camp was created by Zane Zinkle, the former smartest kid in the universe, now a wealthy inventor. “There are brain teaser challenges, robot polar bears, and high-tech cabins with high-tech toilets,” says Grabenstein. “It isn’t all fun and brain games, especially when Jake goes up against the artificially intelligent Virtuoso quantum computer, the smartest machine in the universe, which also happens to be Zinkle’s latest genius creation.”

Currently, Grabenstein is working on the next book in the Smartest Kid in the Universe series, Evil Genius, due out in 2023. “Most of my stories start with a ‘What if?’” he says. “For Evil Genius, that question was ‘What if another kid got his hands on Jake’s ingestible knowledge capsules and used his newfound powers for evil instead of good?’” 

Coming soon, readers will be able to dive into the Mr. Lemoncello series prequel, Mr. Lemoncello’s Very First Game, and the next installment in his Treasure Hunters series. “In the fall, Dog Squad 2: Cat Crew will come out, as well as a third Jacky Ha Ha book,” says Grabenstein. “In 2023, look for a new picture book illustrated by Leo Espinosa called No Is All I Know.” 

Grabenstein says he’s delighted he’s able to connect with his inner 12-year-old and that the persona allows him to write the type of books that kids want to read. “I’m very happy that they appeal to reluctant readers like I was when I was a kid,” he says. “Actually, I prefer the term ‘super critical reader.’ I only wanted to read books that got the movie projector of my imagination turning. I didn’t go for the broccoli books, the ones that everybody said I should read because they’d be good for me. So, it’s wonderful to hear that the Dog Squad, Smartest Kid in the Universe, Welcome to Wonderland, Haunted Mystery, and Lemoncello series all appeal to the kind of reader I used to be.” 

For more about Chris Grabenstein and his books, visit chrisgrabenstein.com.