Well, I must say I’m extremely pleased to be talking about a new book. I was not entirely sure where the name ‘Donuthead’ came from, which is the number one question asked by kids. But I know exactly where Harry Sue began. In the summer of 2003, I was reviewing the latest Harry Potter book, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” and I was feeling a little woozy. Hey, I’d just read 800 pages in about 30 hours! I finished my review, called up my editor, and asked her what I should call the slug. A ‘slug’ is our term for the name of the article as we’re sending it over the modem. It can’t be very long, only eight characters will show up. She suggested I call it “harrysue” to indicate to her that it was the “Harry Potter” review, written by me, Sue Stauffacher. And so I did. But a couple of days after that, the name popped back into my head: “Harry Sue. Harry Sue. I wonder what a character named Harry Sue would be like?”

No. At first, I wanted it to be a bit of a secret whether she was a boy or a girl. I liked playing around with that completely false notion that boys wouldn’t read books about girls. But then I told myself: “Don’t hold back! Treat your readers with more respect.” So the reader learned about Harry Sue at the same time I did.

She is based on one girl more than others, but I have to protect her privacy and can’t reveal her name. This girl went to great lengths to protect her younger siblings from danger and I was amazed by her strength. She’s the one who provided what we writers call ‘the emotional truth’ in the story. But this truth is universal. I know many young girls and boys who are willing to do whatever it takes to defend kids in need of protection.

Uh, it came from that place inside me where I’m still a kid and love to sling around words that sound strange and other people don’t know what they mean. It’s especially rewarding to get a stern look from adults because they are wondering if you’re trying to pull a fast one. Here’s a funny story. On the very last version of “Harry Sue” where it’s just about to be finished and you are only supposed to make tiny changes, I added about twenty more ‘joint jive’ words. My editor, Nancy, had to have a talk with me about that. So I took out most of them except the ones I thought you would really love, like ‘foo-foo’ and ‘gas house’ and ‘dragon’s tongue.’ Nancy let me keep those.

Oh no, I can’t remember! Should I make something up? Maybe it will come to me, but for now the best I can say is that I knew Harry Sue would be a reader and one of the books she read was “Wizard of Oz.” Since that is such a famous movie and I am one of those people who think we should all read the book first!, I started to re-read the book. The differences between the book and the movie became a sort of metaphor for the difference between the real lives of girls like Harry Sue and the assumptions other people make about them.

Well, millions of children don’t have to read about rough lives in a book because they live that life every day. For them, “Harry Sue” is a chance to see a character make it through tough times. Maybe it will give them hope. I grew up in a completely normal ‘Violet Chump’ kind of life and was well taken care of by my parents. Still, I loved to read about lives of all kinds of characters. I read “The Godfather” when I was 12. I just took it off my parents’ shelf (don’t tell them!). I was so curious. “Harry Sue” is an appropriate way to talk about tough issues that we face. If you are being raised in a cave and all you think about are flowers and puppy dogs, you probably shouldn’t read “Harry Sue.” But most kids see this stuff on TV, read it in the paper, and see it happening at school. “Harry Sue” is good way for them to think about the lives of other kids without actually having to experience them. And it is especially good if you share the book with an adult so that you can talk together about it.