Karen Toz - Nate Rocks the World - Author Interview

Author Interview

1. Who is the plot based around?
The plot is based around Nathan Rockledge. Nathan is your average 10-year-old. He lives with his parents and his older sister who of course, he finds to be annoying. He doesn’t particularly like school, but he does like hanging out with his friends.

2. What is the main idea of the plot?
Nathan loves to draw. In fact – he will draw at almost every opportunity. Sometimes his drawings get him into trouble, but it doesn’t matter. You see every time Nathan starts drawing, he transforms himself from Nathan Rockledge, ordinary 10-year-old into Nate Rocks – 4th grader extraordinaire – experiencing adventure after adventure.

3. When does the plot take place?
The story takes place in the present. I wrote the book in the first person present, so that the reader could feel they were experiencing the adventures at the exact moment Nathan experiences them.

4. Where does the plot take place?
Nathan himself lives in Anytown, Pennsylvania, USA. But his adventures take him all over the universe.

5. Why did the plot develop the way it did?
Each of Nathan’s stories read as if they are a stand-alone short story. I did this to simplify the story for younger readers, while still holding the interest of my older readers. But the adventures do actually tie together as the reader will come to learn at the end of the book.

6. How did you come up with the idea for the plot?
My children were really my inspiration – they are all so creative. My oldest loves to draw cartoons, so I suppose the story started with him. But really, there is a little bit of all three of my kids rolled into Nate’s personality.


Book Summary:

Nate Rocks can do it all: part super-hero, part all-star athlete, part rock-star… part fourth-grader?

Ten-year-old Nathan Rockledge cannot catch a break. After all, life as a fourth-grader can be hazardous what with science projects to deal with and recess football games to avoid. Everyone, including his best friend Tommy, seems to have bad luck when hanging around Nathan. Throw in an older sister who is a royal pain, a dad who is stuck in the past, and a mom who keeps trying to poison him with her awful cooking, and poor Nathan’s life as a fourth grader appears to be completely doomed.

Armed only with his sketchpad, his imagination, and his wits, Nathan Rockledge navigates the perils of the fourth grade in style, to emerge heroic, as Nate Rocks, proving that even a ten-year-old can accomplish great things.

Follow the quirky and imaginative adventures of ten-year-old Nathan Rockledge as his cartoons come to life.