That’s What It’s All About
Author Jerry Spinelli dishes to TFK about his new book.
January 11, 2013
By Cameron Keady
GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
Award-winning author Jerry Spinelli tells a story of friendship and adventure in a new book called Hokey Pokey.
In his newest book, Hokey Pokey, Newbery Medalist
author Jerry Spinelli creates a world where kids rule.
Hokey Pokey is an imaginary land with ice cream for
lunch, cartoons playing on a big-screen TV, and
children traveling freely atop bicycles. There are no
cars, busses, or trains in Hokey Pokey. For the story's
main character, Jack, life in Hokey Pokey is the only
one he's ever known. It’s sheer paradise, until one
day, Jack hears the whistle of a train…and everything
changes. TFK chats with Spinelli on the inspiration
for his imaginary world and what Hokey Pokey really
means to him.
TFK:
Why did you choose the old west as the setting for
Hokey Pokey?
SPINELLI:
Ultimately, it came from my own childhood watching
western shows when I was 6 or 7 years old, and
wanting to be a cowboy. It just seemed like a good
fit. Also, it helped create a sense of adventure. For
example, all the children in Hokey Pokey ride
bicycles. I described the bicycles as if they were wild
horses in the southwest and gave them a life of their
own. Bicycles in Hokey Pokey, like horses, travel at
high speeds in herds.
TFK:
Hokey Pokey is a world with no adults. How does
this independence affect the characters?
SPINELLI:
The entire story occurs in one day that begins
differently than any other day in Hokey Pokey. The
main character, Jack, wakes up to find his precious
bicycle missing and sets off to find it. It has been
taken by Jubilee, the female protagonist. Both
characters are among the oldest children in Hokey
Pokey. The story follows Jack and Jubilee through
their last day in this dreamland, because they are
about to grow up and leave Hokey Pokey for good.
TFK:
How do you choose character names for a story?
SPINELLI:
When I choose names for my characters, I base my
choice simply off feeling. Whatever looks right and
feels right is what I go with. Jack just felt like the
right name for this character, as common as it is. I
like to play around with girl character names because
I can make more colorful choices, like the name
Jubilee. Her name just struck me as having the right
sound. How they sound for me as well as how they
appear on the page is equally important when naming
characters. I think a story gets its drive equally from
how it sounds and how it looks.
TFK:
Children in Hokey Pokey all belong to different
groups with unusual names, like Gappergums,
Snotsippers, and Sillynillys. What do these groups
mean?
SPINELLI:
I wanted to come up with an entertaining way to
define age groups amongst the children characters
rather than just classifying them by age numbers. I
tried to think of ways kids might differentiate
themselves from one another, and which
characteristics would identify one age group versus
another. Gappergums, for example, are like 6-yearolds about to go into first grade who have just lost
their two front teeth. Inventing creative names for
groups rather than just using ages is way more fun.
TFK:
Why did you title the book Hokey Pokey?
SPINELLI:
I actually didn’t even know the Hokey Pokey was a
popular circle dance and song until I was an adult. In
my hometown growing up, our favorite summer treat
was flavored water ice. The person who sold the
water ice was called “the Hokey Pokey man.” He was
such a big part of my childhood, that when I wrote a
story about a world ruled by kids, Hokey Pokey
seemed like an appropriate title.
TFK:
How do you hope readers will connect with this
book?
SPINELLI:
I hope readers will find themselves in the story, or
that they see something of their own little world in
Hokey Pokey. It’s possible to be so young that you
don’t even know what tomorrow is, and that kids live
a today that never ends. I tried to take the concept of
childhood as a time of life and transform it to an
imaginary world. The result of that transformation is
Hokey Pokey.
Critical Thinking: If you were to write a book inspired by your childhood, what might you name it? What might
character names be? Would it be a fairy tale or a scary tale? What would the idea behind the story be?