Gábor Nógrádi (born June 22, 1947, Nyíregyháza) is a Hungarian book author, screenwriter, playwright, essayist, publicist and poet who is best known for his children's novels, such as the Pigeon Granny and The Story of Pie (original title PetePite), a book which won the 2002 Children's Book of the Year award, was on the Honor List of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBI) and was ranked among the 100 most popular books in Hungary in the 2005 'Big Book' competition.
His books have become part of Hungary's national school curriculum in literature. Over the past forty years, Nogradi has become Hungary's best-selling modern children's author. His work is noted for its "realistic storytelling", humor and surprising twists. His novels are frequently themed around the fears and struggles children have to face in their formative years at difficult times, such as divorce, falling in love, fear of failure and conflicts at school or in the family. His books are published by MORA, the biggest publisher in Hungary for children literature.
He is also an accomplished scriptwriter, playwright, television writer and publicist. He wrote six scripts for motion pictures, each of which made it to the big screen, including the comedy-drama We Never Die (Hungarian title: "Sose Halunk Meg"), which was selected as the Hungarian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 66th Academy Awards (but was not nominated).
Early life
Born in 1947 to Jewish parents in poverty-stricken Hungary and growing up in the darkest age of communism in Eastern Europe, Nogradi looks back on his childhood as harrowing and unhappy, given his family's difficult economic status and the inexorable antisemitism of the communist regime. He had a very close, loving relationship with his mother, Katalin Hoffman, a survivor of Auschwitz. She was a literate and thoughtful woman who loved poetry and classical music. Gabor's mother died from cancer when he was seven. She had taught him how to read. He became a fervent reader and devoured every book he could find in the local library. He read at night, hiding under the bed cover with a flashlight, because his father, a woodworker, viewed reading books as "utterly useless" and "a waste of time".
Although he did very well in school, he was refused admission into the Gymnasium (academic high school), and therefore was denied the chance to go to university. He was forced to go to technical school for high school, where he learned how to operate machinery, but he never worked as a technician. He aspired to become a poet - an idea that both his family and his environment regarded as utterly insane. His life mirrors his philosophy on survival: "The deeper one finds himself at the bottom of the pool, the bigger push he can give to himself, as long as he is determined enough to get to the surface." Nogradi credits his early childhood experiences with much of his success in writing, as he says it helped him to "develop an extreme layer of toughness to handle rejections."
Career
His first book of poems titled Kéthátú életünkben ("In Our Double-Back Life") was published in 1973. His first job was selling books of classics door-to-door. He later became a journalist for a Hungarian cultural weekly, Új Tükör ("New Mirror") and worked there as a reporter and publicist for fifteen years. He also worked as editor of the national daily Kurír. He wrote over seven radio plays for the Hungarian Radio and wrote series for the Hungarian TV. He was thirty-five when he decided to start writing novels for children.
Trademark
He transposed his tumultuous childhood experiences into the characters of his novels - hence the birth of the recurring hero in most of his books: the rebellious, warring child who fights against injustice, fights for his rights and for the preservation of his or her individuality. Whether it is the cheeky little girl Emma, who drives her father nuts with her world-changing ideas and her constant desire for free spirit, or twelve-year-old Emily, who one morning wakes up realizing she had switched bodies with her mom - they all have one thing in common: an undeterred fighting spirit to understand the world around them and to make the world understand them. His goal is to help his readers "to identify their own dreams and conflicts in the adventures of the heroes and heroines in my novels, who must face realities and choices, not always easy or happy ones."
Books
Hetcheky and The Little Kidnappers
Gabor Nogradi wrote his first book for children (original title: Hetcheky and the Little Kidnappers) about a young boy who stages his own kidnapping with his circle of friends in an attempt to reunite his divorced parents. A jolly detective figures out the truth and finds the boy hiding in an attic, but instead of exposing the kids, he decides to come to the aid of the desperate children. A provocative and enticing plot, a police investigation, mischievous twins, humor, love, friendship, loyalty, courage, a tumultuous family, oddball neighbors, an evil mother-in-law, and a Hollywood-style happy ending - all parts of an exciting and whimsical novel. The book was made into the children movie Kidnapping on Palank Street (Gyerekrablás a Palánk utcában) in 1986. Nogradi wrote the script to the movie.
Granny Halle and the Cheeky Burglars
The sequel titled (original title's translation: Hetcheky and the cheeky burglars), is a humorous novel about a bunch of vivacious kids who steal from crooked entrepreneurs, 'Robin Hood style', under the direction of the brassy granny in order to help their parents overcome some financial difficulties. The hearty detective, known from the first novel, appears again, investigates and naturally, comes to the aid of the little rascals once again.
Help, It's a Human!
His next book, "Help, It's a Human! ("Segítség, Ember!") was inspired by his younger son, Benjamin, an animal enthusiast who kept all kinds of pets in his room from hamsters to parrots and a dozen aquariums full of tropical fish. The book explains how to look after pets and exotic animals, written in a humorous and sarcastic style from the point of view of the animals, revealing how silly humans can be with their pets when they have no clue how to care about them. The book was a critical success, became a bestseller and never went out of print since it appeared. It was also made into a musical and its chapters have become a common choice for school children attending recital and speaking competitions.
The story of Pie
In this amusing and thought-provoking book, father and son wake up one morning and find that they had swapped bodies. For a few days, therefore, they have to live each other's lives: the father goes to school, the boy must go to work at a television studio. Trading places gives them the opportunity to learn more about each other, understand themselves and their relationship better. The novel was awarded the Children's Book of the Year Prize in 2002 and was on the IBBY Honor list and was voted as one of the best-loved 100 novels in the Hungarian 'Big Book contest.
(Big Book was the Hungarian version of the BBC’s Big Read in Britain in 2003. Over 1400 libraries, 500 bookshops and 1300 schools participated in the competition. It proved to be far more popular in Hungary (with a population of 10 million) than in the UK (with a population of 60 million), with 400,000 votes sent in, almost three times the participation in the UK competition (140,000 votes).
Being My Mom
This time it is daughter and mom who switch bodies, following the successful intervention of the somewhat wacky and eccentric scientist grandpa, whose constant desire to improve the world resembles the enthusiasm of Christopher Lloyd's character (Dr. Emmett Brown - 'Doc') from the movie "Back to the Future." The confusion that ensues creates a funny and exciting novel. About the book, Nogradi said, "The idea of mom and daughter swapping bodies was an idea raised by children at one of the book signings. At first I was hesitant to write the book, because writing a story about the inner feelings and thoughts of a small girl and her mother seemed a bit scary, but it became one of the most cherished books I ever wrote." The book was made into a comedy and was premiered in theaters in Hungary.
How to Teach...?
Want to know how to discipline your school buddy, your math teacher, your cat, and the housefly? How to educate your family members—your little brother, your uncle, your grandma? How to turn your Dachshund into a pit bull and yourself into a top-of-the-class student? No problem! Just read the 50+ humorous guidance and playful instructions in this book that will tell you exactly what to do and how to do it. As the author suggests, "When I was a kid, everybody believed that disciplining a child will create miracles. And sometimes it does. This book is about the fact that everything and everyone can be disciplined. (Except, of course, ourselves, because our personality is as sturdy as the icebergs at the North Pole. When I wrote the first instructions on how to discipline our family members, I suddenly realized: I can discipline anyone from a UFO to the police and the ghost in the attic. And I did, with no mercy!"
Beyond The Seven Seas
Miracles happen when you really believe in them. And if you do all you can to make them happen. Benedict knows that his mom could not have disappeared forever when she went to swim in the sea. He believes that she is still alive and one day she will return. The weeks and months can pass, there can be a bunch of doubters around him and even grandma can make arrangements to bring a new mommy to Dad, but Benedict knows that Mom is alive! Maybe the UFOs took her. Maybe Mickey the monkey from the fairy tale picked her up will bring her back in his boat. Maybe smugglers picked her up in that sudden sea storm on that fateful day, took her far away, beyond the seven seas, but one day, someone picks up the phone and calls a number at home…
This is the most personal novel by the author and his favorite one, by his own admission.
Anna Moll
Inspired by one of his favorite childhood poets, Edgar Lee Masters, and his "Spoon River Anthology," he wrote a series of poems titled "We Lived Here among You," under the pseudonym Anna Moll. These are witty epitaphs from a fictional pet cemetery of an American town in the Midwest, Billingstone, in which the animals tell their stories from beyond the grave.
Book tours Gabor Nogradi has become famous for personally reaching out to his readers in the form of lectures and author/reader meetings in primary schools and local libraries across Hungary, Austria, Slovakia and Slovenia. He is willing to travel to "any village with a zip code," when he is invited to a school or library to deliver his message. His talks include overcoming obstacles in life, exploring talents, and the importance of reading literature for pleasure in the growth of a child. Over the past decade, he has conducted 800+ lectures and personally met over 40,000 of his loyal readers, an accomplishment that has never been done by any other children's book writer before.
Personal life
Nogradi lives in Göd, a small town near Budapest, the capital of Hungary, with Krisztina, in a house overlooking the curve of the Danube. He has two sons by his ex-wife, Judit Varhalmi. Both followed his path with their literary endeavors, although his older son, Gregory, became an opera singer, while his younger son Ben has pursued a career in public speaking.
Reception and awards