Features
The past year has been a wild ride for Mark Peter Hughes 鈥�88.
MEET THE AUTHOR: Addressing an audience steeped in social media, Hughes is adept at relating to readers of his fiction, connecting
to them through Facebook, Twitter, and the sites and (Photo: Adam Fenster)In August, he released his third teen novel, A Crack In the Sky (Delacorte), the adventure of a 13-year-old boy and his pet mongoose, who save the planet from environmental catastrophe. In
April, he, his wife, Karen, and their three children traveled from their home outside Boston to New York City to attend an advance screening of Lemonade Mouth, a Disney Channel movie adapted from Hughes鈥檚 2007 novel of the same title. The story follows five maladjusted freshmen who are thrown together to form the most beloved band ever to grace the stage at their fictional high school.
鈥淵ou have to remember,鈥� says Hughes, 鈥淚鈥檓 a guy who lives in a small cape house. And we鈥檝e got a couple of really old cars. And there I was at this very real, unbelievable dream moment.鈥� For someone who earns accolades for his ability to bring a fresh perspective to such 鈥渄ream moments鈥� in the lives of fictional teenagers, it seems fitting that Hughes is getting a taste of what it鈥檚 like to find success in pursuit of a dream. Since his 2005 debut novel, I Am the Wallpaper, Hughes has specialized in crafting winning portraits of precocious underdogs who find their voices and discover that they can achieve more than they thought possible. 鈥淚t was over-the-top surreal,鈥� says Hughes of seeing his work brought to life on screen, a week before its national premiere. Arriving at Rochester in the fall of 1984 to study electrical engineering, thinking at the time that it was 鈥渁 safe bet,鈥� Hughes has been writing for a long time. Like many successful authors, pretty much his entire life. He chronicles his interests in writing and storytelling through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter and on and . The venues are particularly important for tween and young adult novelists, because their audience, more than any other, will not only turn online for sources of information, but also wants to feel personally connected to the writers of the books they like. In all these outlets, Hughes is as vivid and colorful as the characters he creates.
Sometimes he鈥檒l address his fans on video. Occasionally he鈥檒l appear on video and in song, as in a recent post featuring Hughes answering a reader鈥檚 letter in a tune he sings and plays on his ukulele: 鈥�Lemonade Mouth Letter Song (Dear Mark).鈥� And there are plenty of pictures of him with his three children Evan (13), Lucy (11), and Zoe (9).
Hughes was the director of data analysis at a Boston-area health care company when he got the break any fiction writer would die for: an offer from Random House to publish his first novel, I Am the Wallpaper. He had entered the manuscript in Random House's Delacorte Press Young Adult Novel Competition. It was among five finalists, attracting the attention of a Delacorte editor, Stephanie Lane Elliott.
鈥淪he worked with me on a rewrite and then offered me a contract,鈥� says Hughes. 鈥淪tephanie and I have worked together ever since.鈥�
I Am the Wallpaper tells the story of 13-year-old Floey Packer, the frumpy little sister of a much more popular girl, who feels very much like wallpaper. The book established Hughes鈥檚 reputation for wild humor and uncanny insight into the lives of adolescents鈥攁s well as his tendency to insert references to the Beatles into his work, in this case, the 1967 song, 鈥淚 Am the Walrus.鈥� (A bit of Hughes trivia: He was born in the Fab Four鈥檚 hometown of Liverpool, England, and in the very same hospital as John Lennon).
Like Disney Channel movie favorites High School Musical and Camp Rock, Lemonade Mouth centers on music and big dreams. Its heroes are five freshmen at fictional Opequonsett High School who face social challenges at school and in their lives at home. They feel small, but then make it big鈥攁t least among their classmates鈥攚hen they form a band they call Lemonade Mouth, which comes to overshadow the once hands-down school favorite among garage bands, Mudslide Crush.
Hollywood film producer Debra Martin Chase, whose movie credits include big tween and teen hits such as The Princess Diaries and The Cheetah Girls, first noticed Lemonade Mouth. Talking with Women and Hollywood in April, she noted that many young adult novels that come across her desk are 鈥渃ookie cutter, not original.鈥� But not Hughes鈥檚 novel. 鈥淭he moment I finished Lemonade Mouth I knew that it was something special. The characters are rich and textured, the messages age appropriate but nonetheless mature, the drama universal and compelling.鈥�
The story is told in the first person, not by one narrator, but by at least five, and arguably, six. Naomi Fishmeier, the self-described 鈥淪cene Queen and Official Biographer of Lemonade Mouth,鈥� as well as a columnist for the student newspaper, introduces the book. From there, band members take turns telling the story of themselves and of Lemonade Mouth.
HIS GUITAR DOESN鈥橳 WEEP: Finding the inspiration for Lemonade Mouth in the 2000 book The Beatles Anthology, Hughes (who, like his character in the novel, Stella, really does play the ukulele) has been widely praised for his portayals of sympathetic, true-to-life teen characters. (Photo: Adam Fenster)Hughes says he got the idea for the structure from The Beatles Anthology, a 300-plus-page hardcover coffee-table book published in 2000 that, in scrapbook style, offers the foursome鈥檚 鈥渙wn permanent written record of events.鈥� Constructed from interviews conducted over years by both print and broadcast sources, as well as from the private archives of the then three surviving band members, the book is arranged to construct a chronological narrative.
Lennon opens the anthology, but in Lemonade Mouth, it鈥檚 trumpeter Wendel (Wen) Gifford. Much of Hughes鈥檚 success derives from his penchant for the absurd, and it鈥檚 a preposterous chain of events that culminates in Wen鈥檚 expletive, which lands him in detention where he meets his future bandmates, each of whom lives under challenging circumstances.
A Fab Five
Much like the five underdogs who form Lemonade Mouth, here鈥檚 a list of five extraordinary tween books that might have escaped your notice, but are exceptional nonetheless鈥攁nd deserve a place on bookshelves.
鈥擬ark Peter Hughes 鈥�88
How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O鈥機onnor (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007). A story about a southern town, a homeless family, and a girl with a plan to fix everything.
The Outlandish Adventures of Liberty Aimes by Kelly Easton (Random House, 2009). A wild, raucous ride in a magical world a lot like our own except with mutant animals, terrifying inventions, and a talking chicken with human feet.
Galaxy Games by Greg R. Fishbone (Tu Books, Fall 2011). The first in a series about a boy who stumbles into greatness after an alien spaceship visits Earth to recruit a team of kid athletes. Out this fall, I was lucky enough to get to read it early.
Newsgirl by Liza Ketchum (Viking, 2009). During the gold rush of 1851, a young girl in San Francisco must disguise herself as a boy to sell newspapers and ends up in an accidental balloon ride adventure.
Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman (Putnam, 2008). Set in India in 1941, it's the first-person account of a teenage girl in the middle of political and family turmoil.
Stella Penn (electric ukulele) comes from 鈥渁 family of geniuses,鈥� she says, with an older sister at Brown. As the story opens, Stella has opened a letter reporting her IQ test result of 84. Mortified to be 鈥渁 documented dummy,鈥� as she puts it, she shines as a leader, activist, and spirited rebel whose fashion faux pas鈥攁t least in the eyes of the school鈥檚 administration鈥攑laces her in detention.
Olivia Whitehead (lead vocalist) is quiet and taciturn offstage, the product of a mother who abandoned her and a father who鈥檚 in prison for armed robbery and manslaughter. She lands in detention after cutting American Lit class, instead savoring the assigned book, The Great Gatsby, for the third time, alone in a janitor鈥檚 closet.
Mohini (Mo) Banerjee is an overachieving, has-her-life-all-planned-out daughter of Indian immigrants who strives to balance her parents鈥� expectations with her desire to assimilate into the American teenage mainstream.
And then there鈥檚 Charlie Hirsh. He鈥檚 a twin, but his brother, Aaron, was a stillborn, and his birthday celebration never takes place without a family visit to Aaron鈥檚 grave. Chubby, with unruly, frizzy hair, Charlie secures his path to detention when he retaliates to a spitball attack, missing his target and hitting Mo instead.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e all part of me,鈥� says Hughes of his eclectic cast of characters. 鈥淪tella is a lawbreaker and a defier and means really well and doesn鈥檛 always get it right. And that鈥檚 me. Olivia, on the other hand, is quite different. She鈥檚 very quiet, and she has a very hard time talking about herself, and her own work, and that鈥檚 me too, at different times.鈥�
Mo is drawn from Hughes鈥檚 own experience as well. Although raised in the United States, Hughes was born in England to an English family鈥攁 鈥渧ery, very English鈥� family, he adds. 鈥淚鈥檓 American, but I鈥檓 also British. I never feel more American than when I鈥檓 in Britain. And there are plenty of occasions here where I feel very British in the midst of America.鈥�
Hughes says the movie leaves his story and characters 鈥減retty much intact.鈥�
鈥淲hat struck me,鈥� he says, 鈥渨as how little they actually changed from my book. The characters are all there, and they are my characters. The story is there, and it鈥檚 my story.鈥�
When Hughes wrote Lemonade Mouth, he was still working full time as a data analyst. After the novel鈥檚 publication鈥攁nd its favorable reviews鈥攈e quit his job to become a full time writer, a story he told in May 2007 on National Public Radio鈥檚 鈥淭ake This Job and Shove It鈥� segment.
鈥淪uddenly dropping the job is way out of character for me,鈥� he told Michele Norris, the host who interviews Americans who have left steady jobs to chase their dreams.
But the success of Lemonade Mouth may well have depended on that decision. That summer, Hughes took his entire family on an eight-week book tour across the country in the family鈥檚 minivan, a 1996 Honda Odyssey wrapped in bright yellow plastic with images that mimicked the novel鈥檚 cover art. Hughes gave readings and book signings at 60 stores across 38 states. And the car that was already 11 years old traveled more than 12,000 more miles on the journey.
For the time being, the opening of the movie has overshadowed Hughes鈥檚 latest novel. But he has no intention of letting A Crack in the Sky remain in the shadows. True, he鈥檚 at work on a sequel to Lemonade Mouth. But he鈥檚 at work on a sequel to A Crack in the Sky as well.
He鈥檚 not giving any hints about what鈥檚 to come. But one thing is certain. Both sequels will be about big, dramatic events, because books about teens have to be.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e looking at their successes as the greatest triumphs known to humankind. And their failures as the deep depths of depression and awfulness,鈥� says Hughes of the modern teen.
鈥淎t that particular time in our lives, we see everything as one extreme or the other.鈥�