Fairview Elementary School students and educators enjoyed lunch with visiting children’s author Rob Buyea last week. Back row, from left, media specialist Melissa Stepowyj, Brooklyn Diaz, Kensley Alverna, Lucas Estrada, Tyler Moyer, Buyea, ELA teacher Vicki Ratta and Principal Ginamarie Mignone. Front row, Cody Candoy, Leannie Gomez, Aviva Pihlgren and Isabella Pinto. Buyea is the author of the acclaimed ‘Mr. Terupt’ series, an adolescent favorite read.
Successful children’s author Rob Buyea, who wrote the popular “Mr. Terupt” series, visited Fairview Elementary School on Friday, April 26, and spoke to an assembly of fifth- and sixth-graders.
A school-wide read-a-thon sponsored by the Fairview Home and School Association funded his appearance and Buyea, who was animated and comprehensive explaining how he became an author, provided good advice for whatever goal a kid could have.
He was invited to Bloomfield because the students wanted to meet him after reading “Because of Mr. Terupt,” a favorite of theirs. Buyea presently resides in Massachusetts.
A bit of a surprise, he told his audience he was not interested in writing or even reading when he was a student. In elementary school, his great love for wrestling began and he thought at the time what he wanted to be when he grew up was the New York State wrestling champ in his weight class. He eventually got his chance, making it to the high school state finals and took fourth place.
“Never did I think I’d be doing what I’m doing now,” he said. “I wasn’t a reader and wish I had been. It would have helped me now.”
He attended Syracuse University, continued to wrestle and later became a third- and fourth-grade teacher. He displayed photographs of his classes pointing out students who were combined to make one or another character for his stories.
“A character is bits and pieces of people I’ve met,” he said. “It’s something you can do as an author; change them up.”
He said he is often asked if Mr. Terupt was a teacher or if he is Mr. Terupt. Buyea said the character was not one man.
“It’s bits and pieces,” Buyea reiterated, “but a whole lot of imagination.”
In the story, “Because of Mr. Terupt,” a fifth-grade class of seven outcasts learn valuable life lessons from their new teacher, Mr. Terupt. A former schoolboy wrestler, he is hit with a snowball and falls into a coma. The principles he taught his students provide them with emotional support following his injury.
Buyea explained how he became an author.
“It wasn’t until I got into a classroom as a teacher,” he said. “I challenged the kids to write. But I didn’t write. I talked the talk but didn’t walk the walk.”
So he wrote along with his students, but one time had an idea and began working on it for himself.
“It wasn’t an idea for a classroom, but a book,” he said. “I went to Barnes and Noble. I found a book on how to publish a book. I poured myself into the work.”
“Because of Mr. Terupt,” Buyea’s first children’s novel, was published in 2010 by Yearling, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
He recalled a real-life snowball fight between the boys and girls when he was a rookie teacher. It was on a mountain of snow and is the basis for the snowball fight in the book.
“If you read that scene, you understand that there’s a lot of truth up to a point,” he said. “But when you read it, you’ll understand how an author can make things better.
Each of you, inside of you, has a writing switch. I never turn it off. I pay attention to what goes on around me and think ‘what if’. Some of my best sentences and ideas come very far from my writing desk.
“Nobody but a reader becomes a writer,” he continued. “It’s fun, but a challenge, taking the characters and weaving them together.”
He said he is often asked how he does the work. His answer: Put your butt in a chair, carve out the time and do the work.
“I write in different places — hotels, coffee shops, but always in my head,” he said. “But you have to care about the things you write. You have to write from the heart.”
Wrestling, he said — his victories and the big losses — taught him the most for becoming a writer: set goals; make the commitment; repetition and perseverance.
“I could have given up more than once,” he said. “It’s this stuff that will help you become what you will be. And don’t be afraid of failure. You learn a lot from the tough
ones. Authors fail many times before final acceptance.”
The Terupt series has been published worldwide and Buyea displayed covers written in many languages. One had a boy holding a snowball, but Buyea said the publisher was worried it would not sell during the summer so an apple was substituted.
Following his talk, Buyea had lunch with a group of Fairview students, several teachers and Principal Ginamarie Mignone.
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