Nationally known children’s book author to visit Wasilla

WASILLA — Bruce Hale said he took a roundabout path to becoming a children’s book author.

“When I was a kid I didn’t like books,” Hale said by phone from California. But then a couple of big things happened. “The first big thing that happened, we had a very sad time in our family. We actually lost somebody very close to us. Our TV.”

Without a TV, his parents started reading to him. He maintained his dislike for books until his dad read him “Tarzan of the Apes.”

“All that reluctant readers need to become readers is finding the right book,” he said.

Hale is author of 25 children’s books, including the Chet Gecko, Private Eye series of mystery books. He’s heading to Alaska for his second time this summer and will be in Wasilla June 7 for a presentation at The Old Schoolhouse at the Dorothy Page Museum Historic Townsite.

Last year’s Alaska trip had him bouncing around Southeast. This year he’s going to take full advantage of the road system with events in Fairbanks, Seward, Healy and Anchorage. He’s also planning to do some sightseeing.

“I’m quite a hiker, so I’m really looking forward to getting out there and enjoying nature,” Hale said. “Going to Denali is a bit of a pilgrimage.”

His presentation at the museum, he said, will be inspiring and include a number of components.

“Usually with my presentations I try to keep them nice and varied. I do a little storytelling, I have a PowerPoint slideshow, I like to do some cartooning, generally I’ll read from a lot of my books, we have time for lots of questions,” Hale said. “I like to use my own life as an example and talk to kids about how they can reach their dreams.”

Getting back to that life story, Hale said that after he heard the tale of Tarzan he started reading. By the time he got to the fourth grade he wanted to be a children’s book author.

But he didn’t take a straight path to get there.

“I’ve been a gardener, an actor, a corporate lackey, a magazine writer, a jazz singer, all kinds of different stuff,” he said. According to his online biography, he maintains a varied set of interests, acting on stage and screen and traveling abroad to teach. In addition to hiking, he rides bicycles and surfs.

A number of his books have centered around lizards. There are 15 Chet Gecko titles. Chet’s second cousin Moki has played a starring role in three of Hale’s other books.

The books are full of whimsy, with titles that are puns of classic detective stories — “Hiss Me Deadly,” “The Malted Falcon,” “The Chameleon Wore Chartreuse” — and a main character who, as a lizard should, enjoys eating bugs.

There’s actually a detective manual/cookbook to go along with the Chet Gecko stories.

So, having written so many children’s books, does Hale think he’s done for other kids what Tarzan did for him?

“I would not presume to think so, but I got an email from a kid in high school about a year or so ago who said that he was writing to thank me because in fifth grade Chet Gecko were the only books he would read,” Hale said.

Now, the high-schooler went on, he was reading things like “Catcher in the Rye” and Shakespeare.

All things considered, that’s not a bad achievement for a stinkbug-eating, skateboarding, reptilian private eye.

“I write with that hope that I can encourage reluctant readers,” he said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.