Dan Gutman is the author of the new middle grade book The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra's Needle. His many other books include the My Weird School series. He lives in New York City.
Q: What inspired you to focus on Cleopatra’s Needle in your new book?
A: During the pandemic, when I would ride my bike around the Central Park loop, I would pass this seven-story-tall obelisk without knowing anything about it.
I started researching Cleopatra’s Needle, and became fascinated by the story of how one man—Henry Gorringe—was responsible for bringing it from Egypt to the middle of New York City in 1880.
It was carved 3,500 years ago. It’s the oldest man-made monument in New York City, and one of the oldest in the world. When it arrived in America in 1880, it was a HUGE sensation. Thousands of people came from all over to see it. I felt it was a story that should be told.
Q: How did you decide on the time periods on which you focus in the book?
A: I tried to think of the defining moments in the obelisk’s history. It felt natural to focus on...
--when it was first carved out of the granite quarries of Aswan
--when the hieroglyphics were carved into it
--when the Americans came to take it away.
--when it was brought in a ship across the Atlantic Ocean.
--when it was carried across Manhattan to its current location
--the present day
I told the story in diary form by six kids who experienced it in those time periods.
Q: The Publishers Weekly review of the book called it a “delightfully fact-ional blend of history and adventure.” What do you think of that description, and what did you see as the right balance between history and fiction as you worked on the story?
A: I think it’s a good description!
When you’re blending fact and fiction together in a story, you have to be very careful not to overwhelm your readers (especially young readers) with too many facts or too much fiction. I don’t want to bore the kids, and I also don’t want them to feel like they’re getting a history lesson.
I think the best strategy is to tell a great story, and slip in just enough facts and real background to make it believable.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: I hope they are captivated by a story they knew nothing about. There has NEVER been a children’s book about Cleopatra’s Needle, and only two or three books for adults.
Tourists wait in long lines and pay a lot of money to visit the famous tourist attractions of New York City. But right behind The Metropolitan Museum of Art sits Cleopatra’s Needle. It’s free and open 24/7.
Thousands of people walk, jog, and bike past it every day and hardly anybody notices this grand monument. Even many longtime New Yorkers have no idea what it is or how it got there. Again, it’s a story that should be told.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m working on a middle grade novel about a boy who buys a $10 poster at a flea market, and when he brings it home and takes it out of its frame, he finds an original drawing by Pablo Picasso. His life is changed forever—for better and for worse. It will be called “The Picasso Curse.”
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Yes, but I gotta leave for the airport!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Dan Gutman.
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