Jasmine Wright
asked
Louis Sachar:
Okay, a slightly sillier question than the ones you've been answering, but I'm curious: is Sammy named after a real kid you taught like the rest of the Wayside kids are? What about Sue and Benjamin? I remember you saying that the Wayside kids are all named after actual kids you knew, including three Erics, I'm just curious if there was an actual person unlucky enough to become a dead rat.
Louis Sachar
There's no such thing as a silly question, Jasmine. Just silly answers. Or something like that, anyway. No, there was no kid named Sammy. At the time, I didn't know if they would ever read these stories, and I certainly didn't want to embarrass anyone. By the way, as far as I know, none of the real kids have ever read these stories.
There was also no Sue or Benjamin.
There was also no Sue or Benjamin.
More Answered Questions
Jasmine Wright
asked
Louis Sachar:
Hi! I did some research a few months back, and discovered there was a television special based on Wayside School back in the '80s, though it seems to be in name only -- all descriptions I could find of it didn't include characters or events from the books at all. Despite this, apparently copies of the books released around this time advertised the special, so this leaves me curious, do you know anything about it?
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