My name is Megan McDonald, and I’ve written probably over 30 books for children. I’ve written all kinds of books. I started out really writing lots of picture books for younger kids that are fully illustrated. I love history and I love mystery, so I’ve written some historical fiction [and] a mystery book that takes place in Jamestown, back in time.
I’m probably best known for a series of books I write called The Judy Moody Books. Judy is a big sister. She’s about eight years old, and she’s rather bossy and has a lot of different kinds of moods, both good moods and bad moods. When I came up with the idea to write about a big sister, since I have four big sisters myself, I had a lot of material; but I had to give her someone in her family that she could boss around and do things like play jokes on.
To make it different from my own life with all the sisters, I decided I would give her a little brother just for something different to write about. I gave her a little brother, and I named him Stink, because he’s kind of a pest. He’s one of those annoying little brothers that thinks he knows everything and is always bugging Judy.
Now, Stink actually has his own series. After I wrote several Judy Moody books, a lot of boys were reading Judy Moody, but they loved the character Stink, and they kept saying, “When are you gonna write a book about Stink, where he gets to be on the cover? I wanna see that.” From kids themselves and from my readers, that really planted the idea of, “Hey, I really could write about Stink and tell some of the stories from his perspective, of the youngest child, since that’s really me.”
I especially love Stink myself, and he’s just such a fun character to write. So, now there are three books about Stink. The latest is about Stink and the world’s worst stinky sneaker. Stink finds out that he has a special ability where he has a very sharp nose, and he can smell things really well. You kind of think that he wants to enter his stinky sneakers in the contest, but as things go on, it turns out that one of the judges for the contest has a cold. Stink, because of the nose, gets to step up and become a judge in the world’s worst stinky sneaker contest.
