Author visits Wildwood Middle School

David Lubar wanted to be a cartoonist. Or maybe a comedy writer like Rob Petrie on the Dick Van Dyke TV show. But as he spoke to the Wildwood Middle School students, he was recognized as one of their favorite book authors.
Lubar’s career has great interest for kids. He took his artistic skills and worked as a video game designer for early products such as Worm War for Atari, Frogger II and Home Alone for Game Boy.
His ability to tell a joke and make clever use of words got the better of him and about 1994 he got back to writing books and soon sold six of them.
“My goal is simple — to entertain, delight, and surprise my readers,” says the author. And this he does consistently.
The students at WMS prepared for his visit by reading either “Punished” or “Dunk” and created games, posters and projects as book reports. “Dunk” seemed to get the most attention as the story is set on the Wildwood boardwalk about the Bozo-the-clown character who sits in the dunk tank.
Trisha Lemma, sixth grade Language Arts teacher said that Lubar’s visit was made possible by money raised from Book Fairs and community outreach programs.
She believes programs like this emphasize the importance of keeping a “love of reading” that often gets lost during the middle school years. She is pleased that the Wildwood Civic Club will sponsor a second author visit this winter.
“Whatever you want to write starts with an idea,” Lubar told the kids. “Play with it; imagine a title with that idea in it. Then let the idea grow. Take it a step further. Fool around with words.”
Lubar led the students through three writing exercises and then allowed time for questions and answers. Many of them got the chance to have their book autographed by the author.
Lubar said he was sure the kids would remember his visit; if only for “the guy who got us out of class.”