Alan Gratz talks to Columbia students about history, connecting his characters

Alan Gratz likes to create characters for his novels for young readers who are connected across miles and decades, he told hundreds of fifth- and seventh-graders on Friday in a packed Missouri Theatre.

Gratz, from Portland, gave the Authors in Schools keynote as part of the Unbound Book Festival. Columbia Public Schools Foundation and Daniel Boone Regional Library are among sponsors of the event.

He talked some about growing up an uncoordinated kid with no sports ability. He turned to writing early on with stories like "The Mummy and the Vampire" and publishing a newspaper, The Blue Spring Lane News, for the people on his street, placing it in their mailboxes whether they wanted it or not.

One elderly neighbor told him he didn't want it.

"Here, take it and like it, old man," he said, possibly imagining what he wanted to say to the neighbor.

He has published 20 books, he said.

"Prisoner B-3087" is the story of 12-year-old Jack Gruener, shipped to several Nazi concentration camps. Gruener survived the Nazis and lived until 2017.

Gratz got to know Gruener and talked with him for the book, he said.

"It's an incredible story," he said.

"Ground Zero" is a novel about the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. One character in the book is a boy separated from his dad in one of the World Trade Center towers when the airliner slams into it. Another character is a girl in Afghanistan learning English. Her family takes in an American soldier.

The book reveals their connections, but Gratz didn't reveal them to the students.

"You have to read the book," he said.

The students responded with a disappointed "aww."

"I know," Gratz said.

When Gratz introduced "Refugee," the students applauded.

"This is easily my most read book," Gratz said.

The book includes young characters from three periods of history.

More than 900 Jewish refugees were on the M.S. St. Louis, fleeing Germany in 1939.

First in Cuba, then the United States and Canada, the refugees were turned away.

"Nobody wanted these refugees," Gratz said.

The refugees ended up back in Europe, in countries neighboring Germany that were invaded by the Nazis. Most of them died in concentration camps, he said.

"None of them had to die if somebody said, "We got this. We'll take you in," Gratz said.

Another character is a Cuban refugee, coming to the U.S. in the 1990s. A third character is a Syrian refugee, fleeing the violence of its civil war.

Six million people have fled Syria since the start of the civil war and many have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, he said.

"Nobody had to die if somebody said, 'We got this. We'll take you in,'" he repeated.

The characters are made up, but the events happened to actual people, he said. There's a chapter devoted to each character.

"There are connections across decades and miles," Gratz said.

He brought up his book "Ban This Book" when he was asked about efforts to ban books from school libraries.

The book follows a young girl in a school where books are banned. She and her friends collect the banned books and store them in their lockers and check them out.

"A lot of what we're seeing is people taking books out of libraries so that other voices are silenced," Gratz said.

He wants eveyone to see themselves in his books, he said.

"It's really important that we don't ban books," Gratz said to big applause. "We've got to stand up for the freedom to read."

His favorite food is pizza, he said responding to a question.

"I eat pizza every day," Gratz said.

He said when they grow up, they can eat pizza every day, too.

"For now, you have to eat what your parents put in front of you," Gratz said.

Roger McKinney is the Tribune's education reporter. You can reach him at rmckinney@columbiatribune.com or 573-815-1719. He's on X at @rmckinney9.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Author Alan Gratz talks to Columbia students for Unbound Book Festival