November 3, 2025 • 9 mins
Evie can't believe she's made it to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. After fleeing the Oklahoma Dust Bowl, Evie's family is still poor and reeling from devastating losses. She could have never guessed that the sport she took up to escape her reality would lead to this. Now, she's competing in gymnastics on Team USA, with some of the greatest athletes in the world like track and field star Jesse Owens. But all is not as it seems in Berlin, a city now ruled by the Nazis and their tyrannical leader, Adolf Hitler. And Evie has secrets of her own. With two other Olympic athletes, who each have their own reasons for despising the Nazis, Evie has been recruited for the biggest heist of the century by a mysterious criminal mastermind, who intends on robbing the Nazis right under their noses. But Evie didn't count on being stuck with an inquisitive Youth Services Host, Heinz, who is determined to follow her every step while concealing his own deadly secret. And she didn't count on discovering the truth behind all of the glittering fanfare of the Olympics: the Nazis are harshly persecuting Jewish people and preparing for a devastating war. When the time comes, Evie is forced to face the reality around her, and the horrors that the Nazis can't quite hide. She must learn how to see the truth beneath the mirage and choose between what's wrong and right -- and what it might cost her. The timeless #1 New York Times bestseller REFUGEE in a stunning newgraphic novel adaptation!Josef is a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world... Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety in America... Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe... All three kids must endure harrowing journeys. All face unimaginable dangers. But there is always the hope of tomorrow. And although Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud are separated by continents and decades, shocking connections will tie their stories together in the end. Refugee is a modern classic that has spent over 5 years on the New York Times bestseller list and garnered several awards and much acclaim. Brought to life with rich, gorgeous illustrations by artist Syd Fini, this hotly anticipated graphic novel will attract a whole new generation of fans.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-view-from-the-writing-instrument--1023245/support.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-view-from-the-writing-instrument--1023245/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Alan Gratz, how are you doing today, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm doing great. It's good to hear your voice.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Dude. I got to tell you something, I am you
have no idea. How proud I am of you writing
these stories in so many different ways. Because my father
fought in World War Two, I know nothing of that
period because he spoke nothing of it. So therefore I've
had to rely on history books and you know, and
you know, straightforwardness and journalism and blah blah blah. And
then you give us these stories like war games and
(00:26):
and and you know. And the thing is is that
all of a sudden, you put my mindset in a
time period. It's like when I sat down with the
sex Pistols and they told me you have no idea
what it was like to be here in World War Two.
It's still haunting me. And so I mean so right away.
I mean, but that's what you're doing, Alan, is you're
putting us back into a place that took place. And
it's nothing to do with journalism. Is let me share
(00:48):
a story with you.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Thanks. I appreciate that. That's what I'm trying to do
is to get kids reading and get them turning the
pages and then get my history and my point across.
But I'm trying to write a story they can't put down. First,
That's the big thing.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
How do you combine and what is what is your
continuity when it comes to this thing, you know, combining
real history with a storyline. That's got to be like
putting pieces together like a puzzle, and it's got to
be a great brain game.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I love it, I really do, and I do often
talk about it like doing a jigsaw puzzle. So the
first thing I do is I do a ton of research,
and I'm looking at that time or that event that
I'm writing about, and I'm looking for the pieces that
I think will make the best scenes for a story, right,
Like what are going to be like think about scenes
in a movie like this sequence and then that sequence
and that sequence. And I'm trying to think about those
(01:37):
sequences that will keep kids tuned in, like what they
will really be fascinated by, and then a way to
link those. And while I'm doing all of this, I'm
also thinking about who my character needs to be, Like
is it going to be a boy, is it going
to be a girl? Is it going to be a
person who is caught in between? This is it a
person who is thrust into it by accident, you know, like,
(02:00):
how did they come into this situation? What is their goal?
Like what is their personal goal? Because of course kids
aren't there to like when the day right. I mean
they're there to like survive because they got caught up
in the middle of it. But what were they trying
to do when the event happened? When the event hit?
So I start with all that history. Then I take
those puzzle pieces and I try to build a character
(02:21):
and start to fit all that in there together of
the fictional story of my kid and their life with
the real life events of what's going on in history.
I think it's a ton of fun and actually the
outlining phase is one of my favorite parts of it.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Wow. So I've got to ask you this question only
because I have talked about this so many times on
the radio over the years. Now for you to be
connected to these stories in Verlin, because when you've got
something as what feels very authentic to me with Evi Harris,
I mean, he's only thirteen years old, he's in Berlin.
The year is nineteen thirty six. With the Olympics. Sure,
we've seen the sports reels blah blah blah. But what
you do is you give us a picture of evy.
(02:57):
I often wonder, though, when you're able to go back
there with that true passion to not only write but storytell.
Are you sure you're not reincarnated and you're bringing your
personal experiences from that area up here in the four
Because I believe in that. I believe in speaking to
the future.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Sir, well, I don't know if I feel like I'm
the reincarnated the soul of the characters, but I do
try to put a little of myself into my characters,
So I appreciate that, Like, maybe that's what you're sensing.
And every one of my characters that I build, none
of them are me, Like I don't ever write myself
into a story, for example, but every time I write
(03:32):
a story, I am trying to put a little of
myself into the characters. So like, for example, with Refugee,
the graphic novel that I've got coming out right now,
based on the book that came out in twenty seventeen,
the original book, there's three main characters in that, and
all three of them have a little bit of me
and them Joseph in the first story is a kid
(03:53):
who wants to grow up. He wants to be treated
like an adult and be taken seriously, and that's the
way I felt when I was a kid. Put that
into there. He also wants to be a writer, which
was a little bit of me. And then with Isabelle,
she is afraid her family is going to split up.
She's afraid her parents are going to break up. And
my parents argued a lot when I was a kid,
and I had friends whose parents got divorced, and I
(04:15):
was really afraid that my parents are going to split up,
and so I put that fear in her as well.
And then with the final character in that book, Mahmud,
he is a victim of bullying, and I was too.
I was often the smallest kid in my class at
elementary school, and I wish sometimes I could just disappear
(04:36):
and turn invisible. And he can't literally turn invisible, it's
not a fantasy story, but he'll pull his hoodie up
and kind of fade into the background and try to
not be noticed. And I put a little bit of
that of me in there, too, of wanting to just
kind of disappear and not be noticed. So every time
I write a character. I'm thinking, like, what's a part
(04:58):
of my own life that I could put into this
care they help bring him or herd alive.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Please do not move. There's more with Alan Gratz coming
up next. He's currently promoting two books, War Games and Refugee,
the Graphic Novel. We're back with Alan Gratz. So there's
a couple of things I want to talk to you
about when it comes to the Refugee Graphic Novel. First
and foremost, before we get into Sid, I want to
(05:23):
talk to you that because right here, in big bold letters,
it says Scholastic that took me back to my elementary
school days. You know, it's book covers like this, the
book cover, this is what would have took me to
this book. And so you guys put a lot of
psychological something in it for me to go, Holy crap,
I am now seven years old again. This guy just
(05:43):
put me back into where I was as a child.
And I would read this book because of artists like
you like Sid, as well as the author inside of
you as well.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, I love writing for Scholastic like you. I had
Scholastic book bearers at high school when I was a kid, right,
and it's very it's very nostalgic for me. And every
time I see a book with my name on it
and the Scholastic logo, I'm taken back to being a
kid all over again. And so it's awesome. I mean,
Sclassic has been around for like one hundred years, so
(06:13):
they've been doing this school fair thing for a long time,
longer than me and you, right, And so it's incredibly
nostalgic for people. And then they do a great job
of putting covers on the books. Like you said, the
covers on my books are amazing. They're like black and
white and red, and they often have a kid on
the cover who's facing away from us, but like in
(06:35):
danger or trouble. And it's exactly the kind of book
I would have picked up when I was a kid
going to the school book fair. So that's the kind
of book I'm trying to write. That's the kind of
cover they're putting on it. I love that whole package,
and hopefully a lot of kids will pick it up.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Well you know why they're going to pick it up
in the read and I'm not going to bring up
anything political, but they can look at this picture of
war games. I mean, they can see what's going on here,
and it's already on their social media. They're seeing this
already somewhere in the world and even in this nation,
and you see, and they're going to be seeking and
searching for something, and they're going to pick up a
book just like wargames and they're going to say, this
is mine. I'm going to be able to relate with it.
(07:11):
And I'm going to, you know, even though this is
nineteen thirty six, it's going to I'm going to compare
my own life like you, slipping yourself in there as
the author and stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do every time. Look,
I know that every book I write won't hit the
same way with every kid, but there's going to be
some kid out there who's like, has questions about what's
happening in the world right now, and hopefully this book
will answer those questions. There's some kid out there who
has questions about climate change and is going to pick
up my book Two Degrees and it's going to answer
some of those, or about terrorism and pick up Ground
(07:42):
Zero and get some answers about that. But basically, I
just want these kids to know I see you, I
know you have questions about the world. I don't have
all the answers. I wish I did, but I don't
have all the answers. But I see you, and let's
talk about it together and see what we can figure out.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
God, you said something here that totally blows me away,
and I can so relay with it. I see you
because for thirty six years I've been in the radio.
I was in the radio industry, and then, for some
stink and reason, maybe because I really craved authentic people,
I went and got a job at a grocery store
because I got to see them. Because in this room,
I'm envisioning the listener, but they're not here. But if
(08:19):
I go to that grocery store, I see you. I
live that. I mean Alan, those are words that I
live by.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Right, And I still love to visit schools and see
kids like I'm writing for kids. That it would be
super easy to just sit in my house and sit
at my computer and write books and never see the
kids who are reading my books. But once my books
come out, I love hitting the road and visiting schools
and talking to young people and seeing them hearing them. Right,
(08:49):
It's so essential.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Like you said, don't you love it though. When you
walk into a school, this is one of my favorite things,
and there's always one or two of them that have
a pencil and a notebook and you're going, oh, that's
the one I'm talking to.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
That's the one that kid, Like that kid was me,
Like I was that kid back in the day, and
I was thinking, like I'm taking notes. I want to
be a writer. I'm going to plan for this, like
I know, like again, not every kid in that audience
is going to grow up to be a writer, but
there's somebody out there who is. And so there's always
not only am I talking to the larger group about
(09:20):
the big the big issues, the big historical stuff, but
I know there's somebody out there in that audience who
also wants to be a storyteller, and I'm speaking to
them too.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
God, ten minutes with you is not enough, Allen. You
got to come back to this dang show because if
I go longer than this, that's going to screw everything
up there. You know that's already been planningful today. You
got to come back because I love where your heart is.
I love where you're going as a writer, and I
know there are young readers out there, and even adult
readers that are going to pick this up. They're going
to say, I want to write now, I want to write.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
I love it, I hope.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
So thank you, Ero, Will you be brilliant today? Okay, Alan,
you too,
Alan Gratz, how are you doing today, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm doing great. It's good to hear your voice.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Dude. I got to tell you something, I am you
have no idea. How proud I am of you writing
these stories in so many different ways. Because my father
fought in World War Two, I know nothing of that
period because he spoke nothing of it. So therefore I've
had to rely on history books and you know, and
you know, straightforwardness and journalism and blah blah blah. And
then you give us these stories like war games and
(00:26):
and and you know. And the thing is is that
all of a sudden, you put my mindset in a
time period. It's like when I sat down with the
sex Pistols and they told me you have no idea
what it was like to be here in World War Two.
It's still haunting me. And so I mean so right away.
I mean, but that's what you're doing, Alan, is you're
putting us back into a place that took place. And
it's nothing to do with journalism. Is let me share
(00:48):
a story with you.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Thanks. I appreciate that. That's what I'm trying to do
is to get kids reading and get them turning the
pages and then get my history and my point across.
But I'm trying to write a story they can't put down. First,
That's the big thing.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
How do you combine and what is what is your
continuity when it comes to this thing, you know, combining
real history with a storyline. That's got to be like
putting pieces together like a puzzle, and it's got to
be a great brain game.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I love it, I really do, and I do often
talk about it like doing a jigsaw puzzle. So the
first thing I do is I do a ton of research,
and I'm looking at that time or that event that
I'm writing about, and I'm looking for the pieces that
I think will make the best scenes for a story, right,
Like what are going to be like think about scenes
in a movie like this sequence and then that sequence
and that sequence. And I'm trying to think about those
(01:37):
sequences that will keep kids tuned in, like what they
will really be fascinated by, and then a way to
link those. And while I'm doing all of this, I'm
also thinking about who my character needs to be, Like
is it going to be a boy, is it going
to be a girl? Is it going to be a
person who is caught in between? This is it a
person who is thrust into it by accident, you know, like,
(02:00):
how did they come into this situation? What is their goal?
Like what is their personal goal? Because of course kids
aren't there to like when the day right. I mean
they're there to like survive because they got caught up
in the middle of it. But what were they trying
to do when the event happened? When the event hit?
So I start with all that history. Then I take
those puzzle pieces and I try to build a character
(02:21):
and start to fit all that in there together of
the fictional story of my kid and their life with
the real life events of what's going on in history.
I think it's a ton of fun and actually the
outlining phase is one of my favorite parts of it.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Wow. So I've got to ask you this question only
because I have talked about this so many times on
the radio over the years. Now for you to be
connected to these stories in Verlin, because when you've got
something as what feels very authentic to me with Evi Harris,
I mean, he's only thirteen years old, he's in Berlin.
The year is nineteen thirty six. With the Olympics. Sure,
we've seen the sports reels blah blah blah. But what
you do is you give us a picture of evy.
(02:57):
I often wonder, though, when you're able to go back
there with that true passion to not only write but storytell.
Are you sure you're not reincarnated and you're bringing your
personal experiences from that area up here in the four
Because I believe in that. I believe in speaking to
the future.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Sir, well, I don't know if I feel like I'm
the reincarnated the soul of the characters, but I do
try to put a little of myself into my characters,
So I appreciate that, Like, maybe that's what you're sensing.
And every one of my characters that I build, none
of them are me, Like I don't ever write myself
into a story, for example, but every time I write
(03:32):
a story, I am trying to put a little of
myself into the characters. So like, for example, with Refugee,
the graphic novel that I've got coming out right now,
based on the book that came out in twenty seventeen,
the original book, there's three main characters in that, and
all three of them have a little bit of me
and them Joseph in the first story is a kid
(03:53):
who wants to grow up. He wants to be treated
like an adult and be taken seriously, and that's the
way I felt when I was a kid. Put that
into there. He also wants to be a writer, which
was a little bit of me. And then with Isabelle,
she is afraid her family is going to split up.
She's afraid her parents are going to break up. And
my parents argued a lot when I was a kid,
and I had friends whose parents got divorced, and I
(04:15):
was really afraid that my parents are going to split up,
and so I put that fear in her as well.
And then with the final character in that book, Mahmud,
he is a victim of bullying, and I was too.
I was often the smallest kid in my class at
elementary school, and I wish sometimes I could just disappear
(04:36):
and turn invisible. And he can't literally turn invisible, it's
not a fantasy story, but he'll pull his hoodie up
and kind of fade into the background and try to
not be noticed. And I put a little bit of
that of me in there, too, of wanting to just
kind of disappear and not be noticed. So every time
I write a character. I'm thinking, like, what's a part
(04:58):
of my own life that I could put into this
care they help bring him or herd alive.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Please do not move. There's more with Alan Gratz coming
up next. He's currently promoting two books, War Games and Refugee,
the Graphic Novel. We're back with Alan Gratz. So there's
a couple of things I want to talk to you
about when it comes to the Refugee Graphic Novel. First
and foremost, before we get into Sid, I want to
(05:23):
talk to you that because right here, in big bold letters,
it says Scholastic that took me back to my elementary
school days. You know, it's book covers like this, the
book cover, this is what would have took me to
this book. And so you guys put a lot of
psychological something in it for me to go, Holy crap,
I am now seven years old again. This guy just
(05:43):
put me back into where I was as a child.
And I would read this book because of artists like
you like Sid, as well as the author inside of
you as well.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, I love writing for Scholastic like you. I had
Scholastic book bearers at high school when I was a kid, right,
and it's very it's very nostalgic for me. And every
time I see a book with my name on it
and the Scholastic logo, I'm taken back to being a
kid all over again. And so it's awesome. I mean,
Sclassic has been around for like one hundred years, so
(06:13):
they've been doing this school fair thing for a long time,
longer than me and you, right, And so it's incredibly
nostalgic for people. And then they do a great job
of putting covers on the books. Like you said, the
covers on my books are amazing. They're like black and
white and red, and they often have a kid on
the cover who's facing away from us, but like in
(06:35):
danger or trouble. And it's exactly the kind of book
I would have picked up when I was a kid
going to the school book fair. So that's the kind
of book I'm trying to write. That's the kind of
cover they're putting on it. I love that whole package,
and hopefully a lot of kids will pick it up.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Well you know why they're going to pick it up
in the read and I'm not going to bring up
anything political, but they can look at this picture of
war games. I mean, they can see what's going on here,
and it's already on their social media. They're seeing this
already somewhere in the world and even in this nation,
and you see, and they're going to be seeking and
searching for something, and they're going to pick up a
book just like wargames and they're going to say, this
is mine. I'm going to be able to relate with it.
(07:11):
And I'm going to, you know, even though this is
nineteen thirty six, it's going to I'm going to compare
my own life like you, slipping yourself in there as
the author and stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do every time. Look,
I know that every book I write won't hit the
same way with every kid, but there's going to be
some kid out there who's like, has questions about what's
happening in the world right now, and hopefully this book
will answer those questions. There's some kid out there who
has questions about climate change and is going to pick
up my book Two Degrees and it's going to answer
some of those, or about terrorism and pick up Ground
(07:42):
Zero and get some answers about that. But basically, I
just want these kids to know I see you, I
know you have questions about the world. I don't have
all the answers. I wish I did, but I don't
have all the answers. But I see you, and let's
talk about it together and see what we can figure out.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
God, you said something here that totally blows me away,
and I can so relay with it. I see you
because for thirty six years I've been in the radio.
I was in the radio industry, and then, for some
stink and reason, maybe because I really craved authentic people,
I went and got a job at a grocery store
because I got to see them. Because in this room,
I'm envisioning the listener, but they're not here. But if
(08:19):
I go to that grocery store, I see you. I
live that. I mean Alan, those are words that I
live by.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Right, And I still love to visit schools and see
kids like I'm writing for kids. That it would be
super easy to just sit in my house and sit
at my computer and write books and never see the
kids who are reading my books. But once my books
come out, I love hitting the road and visiting schools
and talking to young people and seeing them hearing them. Right,
(08:49):
It's so essential.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Like you said, don't you love it though. When you
walk into a school, this is one of my favorite things,
and there's always one or two of them that have
a pencil and a notebook and you're going, oh, that's
the one I'm talking to.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
That's the one that kid, Like that kid was me,
Like I was that kid back in the day, and
I was thinking, like I'm taking notes. I want to
be a writer. I'm going to plan for this, like
I know, like again, not every kid in that audience
is going to grow up to be a writer, but
there's somebody out there who is. And so there's always
not only am I talking to the larger group about
(09:20):
the big the big issues, the big historical stuff, but
I know there's somebody out there in that audience who
also wants to be a storyteller, and I'm speaking to
them too.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
God, ten minutes with you is not enough, Allen. You
got to come back to this dang show because if
I go longer than this, that's going to screw everything
up there. You know that's already been planningful today. You
got to come back because I love where your heart is.
I love where you're going as a writer, and I
know there are young readers out there, and even adult
readers that are going to pick this up. They're going
to say, I want to write now, I want to write.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
I love it, I hope.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
So thank you, Ero, Will you be brilliant today? Okay, Alan,
you too,
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!