Good, Evil, and Ever Afters: An Interview With Soman Chainani on The School for Good and Evil: Quests for Glory
Just Right Reads is a series hosted by Kamilla Benko, children’s book editor and author of the forthcoming The Unicorn Quest, featuring newly released middle grade books and Q&As with your favorite authors!
Soman Chainani, New York Times-bestselling author of The School for Good and Evil series, chats with Kamilla Benko about this first book in the new School of Good and Evil trilogy: Quests for Glory.
Ranging from Disney to Star Wars to Camelot, Soman discusses his inspirations, his favorite new character, and how he has evolved as a writer over the course of four books.
Quests for Glory (B&N Exclusive Signed Book) (The School for Good and Evil Series #4)
Hardcover $17.99
Quests for Glory (B&N Exclusive Signed Book) (The School for Good and Evil Series #4)
Hardcover $17.99
I’m so excited for the fourth book in The School for Good and Evil universe! Quests for Glory kicks off the start of a new arc, The Camelot Years, but still follows our favorite trio—Agatha, Sophie, and Tedros. What sets The Camelot Years apart from the original trilogy?
I’m so excited for the fourth book in The School for Good and Evil universe! Quests for Glory kicks off the start of a new arc, The Camelot Years, but still follows our favorite trio—Agatha, Sophie, and Tedros. What sets The Camelot Years apart from the original trilogy?
When I conceived The School for Good and Evil, I was an ambitious little punk, who thought it could be a nine-book series, divided into three trilogies, exactly like Star Wars. The first trilogy would be the “School Years” that let us watch the characters grow up at the School for Good & Evil; the second trilogy would be the “Camelot Years” where the characters graduate into their respective kingdoms; and the third trilogy would be the “New Class,” which followed the children of our main characters. Truth be told, I never thought this would actually happen. I figured I’d write one book, my grandmother would read it, and I’d go on to whatever was next. The fact that the series has found such a strong and loyal fanbase is so startling to me. But it just makes me work harder—which is why the “Camelot Years” books will hopefully be the best ones yet (and the longest).
The characters are growing up, so this trilogy is more sophisticated and intense than the original. Where the first trilogy is a school-based series, this is more of a court romance in the spirit of high fantasy, like Game of Thrones or Outlander… but for a younger audience. My founding premise is that kids are so intelligent about narrative these days and so well-versed in story tropes that they’re capable of really digging into a narrative filled with twists, turns, and sleights of hand.
The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil Series #1)
Paperback $8.99
The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil Series #1)
By
Soman Chainani
Illustrator
Iacopo Bruno
In Stock Online
Paperback $8.99
I heard there are a lot of new characters! Can you tell us anything about these new characters entering the series?
I heard there are a lot of new characters! Can you tell us anything about these new characters entering the series?
There are tons of new characters—so many, in fact, that it inspired me to use my filmmaking background and create a video campaign to introduce them. We cast 16 incredible teenaged actors to play the characters in The School for Good and Evil: Quests for Glory and will be debuting a new video each day on my social media and the School for Good and Evil website to introduce these characters.
The one I’m most excited about is Nicola, a whip-smart girl, who came from the same village that Sophie and Agatha came from—and has read their fairy tale before she meets them. So Nicola arrives with all kinds of preconceptions about the characters that interfere with her experience of actually relating to them… just the way actual readers of the series might feel if they met the characters in real-life!
As the series evolves, have you felt yourself change as a writer? How is writing the first book different from writing the fourth book?
When I wrote the first book, I was so young! Looking back at it, you can just feel the exuberance and uncontrolled energy of a debut novelist amped-up to have his shot. As the series evolves, though, the books have become richer and deeper because I’ve grown as a person. I see so much more nuance where I didn’t see it before. My own black-and-white thinking has fallen away, which is what I’m trying to help readers do with their own thinking while reading the series. So I’ve learned as much from writing the book as I hope people will reading it.
The Unicorn Quest
Hardcover $16.99
The Unicorn Quest
In Stock Online
Hardcover $16.99
I read once that you loved old fairy tales because they don’t sugarcoat their stories to make readers feel safe. Are you ever tempted to sugarcoat stories for your reader, and if not, why is it important that stories not always make you feel safe?
I read once that you loved old fairy tales because they don’t sugarcoat their stories to make readers feel safe. Are you ever tempted to sugarcoat stories for your reader, and if not, why is it important that stories not always make you feel safe?
What made the Grimms and original fairy tales so enduring is that they were survival guides to life. In a Grimms’ story, you could end up with your prince… or you could lose your tongue or be cooked into a pie. There was no ‘warmth’ built into the narrator, no baked-in happy ending. The thrill came from vicariously trying to survive the gingerbread house, the hook-handed captain, the apple-carrying crone at the door… and often not winning.
So why did kids two centuries ago grow up with these stories, where an Ever After had to be sweated and earned, while kids today expect a happy ending? Four books later, I’m still trying to answer that question. And perhaps in modern times, more than ever, it’s crucial to remember and reclaim why fairy tales were told in the first place—to teach kids how to survive in a world where Good and Evil, each a wily shapeshifter, can so often look the same.
The Once and Future King
Paperback $9.99
The Once and Future King
By T. H. White
In Stock Online
Paperback $9.99
When you were a kid, what was your favorite fairytale/legend? Were there any specific books that began your love of fairy tales and/or the legends of Camelot?
When you were a kid, what was your favorite fairytale/legend? Were there any specific books that began your love of fairy tales and/or the legends of Camelot?
My love of fairy tales really came from Disney. We didn’t have cable when I was young, so all we had was our rickety TV set and VHS tapes of every single Disney animated movie. Until age 8 or so, that was all I pretty much watched. Everything I learned about storytelling, I learned from Disney. (You can imagine what an irritating child I was.) When I went to college, I became fascinated by the gap between the original tales and these Disney revisions. That’s really where The School for Good and Evil comes from.
From the Grimms’ stories, I’d say Hansel and Gretel is my favorite fairy tale because it feels so deeply real in its threat. Gretel has to survive a terrifying situation and save her brother, with poise, skill, and wit. I also love that witch in the story: she’s just incredibly clever. She wants to eat children, so to lure them she builds a house out of what they eat.
As for my obsession with Camelot, that comes solely from T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, which is, in my estimation, the greatest book of all time. Every human should read it, young or old. If The Camelot Years achieves even one iota of that book’s passion, warmth, and beauty, I will have achieved everything I’ve wanted with this new trilogy.
The School for Good and Evil: Quests for Glory is on B&N bookshelves now.