"This is an author who really has his finger on the way kids think," The New York Times says of podcast guest Todd Strasser, the author of over 150 books, including the award-winning young adult and middle-grade novels The Wave, Give a Boy a Gun, and Fallout. He is also the author of the wildly popular Help! I'm Trapped series of books for young readers, as well as several other best-selling series and movie tie-in books and novelizations.

His books have been translated into more than twenty languages, and several have been adapted for film and television. Many of his standalone books are pulled from today's headlines, exploring difficult themes like bullying, homelessness and school shootings.

Join us as we talk with Todd about his influences as a writer, and his unlikely career turns writing X-rated fortune cookies ("clairvoyant contortionist is one who can see her own end") and soap operas ("Guiding Light") to become one of our most prolific YA novelists.

Oh, and he also finds time to share one of the best pieces of writing advice he ever received, after struggling for a way to explain how the character of Cameron Frye managed to place a chair on the edge of a diving board, facing the pool, before sitting himself down in it, as he attempted to "novelize" a key scene in the "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" script: "You just cut to it!"

Learn more about Todd Strasser:

• Website
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Summer of '69
• The Lazy Person's Guide to Surfing (with Lia Strasser)

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