Clad in denim jeans, a surfer top and sporting a wavy head of hair, author of ‘Asboville’ Mr Danny Rhodes (“call me Danny”) visited year nine students at Dover Girls Grammar School June 2007 to discuss his book. Asboville is the story of a teenage boy JB who lives on an estate and hangs around with the bad crowd. He receives an ASBO and is sent to live by the sea with his uncle. Each day he must paint one beach hut. He befriends Sal, a local girl however disaster strikes and he must try to keep his friendship with Sal strong. The ending is not expected yet finishes the book off well.
Over the course of four lessons year nine studied extracts of the book so it seemed ideal for Danny to come in to talk about how he went about writing as well as where he acquired his inspiration from. The idea of the afternoon was to expose girls to real authors instead of just reading books and thinking that authors are not actual people!
From initial idea to completed book it took Danny two years to write, this involves a lot of patience and determination. Without a positive frame of mind it is very difficult to believe that the book will ever be finished let alone published. A teenage love story was what Danny was aiming for however when it became obvious how much the ASBO issue was in the press, the idea for linking two ideas emerged and ‘Asboville’ was born!
Danny considers his book as representative of what ‘one slice’ of teenagers lives might be like. However the book is not supposed to be representative of all teenagers as everyone is different in their own way.
Throughout his years of teaching Danny has met a number of different students with a range of diverse personalities. Asboville sheds light on what some of the traits of these pupils were, in addition to letting the characters have their own distinct qualities. The main character JB is loosely based on a pupil that Danny once taught which makes the storyline more believable to the reader.
When asked Danny was slightly thrown by the question ‘Do you think that your book has encouraged more teenagers to read?’ and he answered ‘crikey’ but went on to say that if he could have encouraged just a handful of people to read his book because it was more like their lives he would be happy.
Following the visit year nine felt compelled to discuss, in English lessons, how they are portrayed in the community and how they are stereotyped because of the school they attend. The afternoon was an insight into not only writing a book, but also how grammar school girls are viewed.
Interview by reporter Hannah 10H
