Nickelodeon Is Turning Alum Dan Gutman’s My Weird School Series Into a TV Movie

The prolific writer shares the story of his transformation from psychology major to popular children's book author

When the question first came up, Dan Gutman didn't think he had much of a Rutgers story to share.

He graduated with a degree in psychology in 1977 and dropped out of graduate school at Rutgers when he realized it wasn't the path for him.

"I decided I wanted to be a writer because going to graduate school showed me that I didn't want to be a psychologist after all,'' Gutman said. "So, I thought, 'What do I like to do?' I always enjoyed writing letters to my friends. Writing came naturally to me. I figured I would give writing a try.''

After years as a struggling writer, he went on to become a prolific children's book author best known for his My Weird School series, which follows a group of elementary school students and their set of wacky teachers. The series is up to 105 books and has sold more than 37 million copies. Nickelodeon is turning My Weird School into a TV movie due out early next year.

Although his major wasn't the launching pad to the future he planned, when Gutman started talking about Rutgers, he ended up having a lot to say. He was part of many iconic Rutgers moments. He saw Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform at the College Avenue Gym, known as "the barn" and remembers the excitement on campus when the men's basketball team appeared in the NCAA final in 1976.

Over the years he's grown closer to the group of friends he made living at Mettler Hall on College Avenue. One of his classmates from his time at Rutgers, Ray Dimetrosky, still helps Gutman develop plot points for some of his books.

"A lot of good has come out of my years at Rutgers, especially my relationships with my friends," said Gutman, 69, who grew up in the Vailsburg section of Newark. "Those were the best times."

Some of the classes he took outside of his major turned out to be pivotal in his career. Gutman remembers enjoying art history so much at Rutgers that for a brief moment he considered it as a major. Those classes helped shape two of his recent books, The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra's Needle about the obelisk in Central Park - which he remembers studying in art history - and The Picasso Curse released this month by Holiday House publishing company.

He dedicated The Picasso Curse to Dimetrosky, who was a fellow psychology major in college.

"I don't think either of those books would have happened if not for my taking art history classes at Rutgers,'' he said.

The dedication meant a lot to his friend, who watched Gutman's career flourish during their 50-year friendship.

"Rutgers was hugely important to me, and I think more to Dan than he realizes," said Dimetrosky, who graduated from Rutgers the same year as Gutman and went on to become a clinical psychologist in New Jersey. "I think Dan had to do psychology and decide he didn't like it to become a writer. It has been so much fun to watch him decide what he wants to do…to follow his passion and keep going. It's great being his friend.''

Gutman's Secret to Success: Never Giving Up

Gutman faced years of rejection letters after leaving grad school to pursue a writing career until he finally found his niche.

He was inspired by Dave Barry, Erma Bombeck and Art Buchwald and wanted to write humor. He started his career in the age of Pac-Man working for a video game magazine that eventually went out of business. Then he tried his hand at writing books about computers.

"My first book was I Didn't Know You Could Do That With a Computer, but honestly, I didn't know anything about computers. I was a total fraud," Gutman said.

He tried writing screenplays, nonfiction books and magazine articles, but he didn't have much success.

"I got rejected hundreds of times before I started writing for kids, it was really frustrating," Gutman said. "And it was tempting to say, 'OK, they know better than me. I should just quit.' But something inside me kept me going."

When Gutman's son Sam was born in 1990 everything changed.

"I started to read children's books for the first time since I was a kid and I thought, let's try writing for kids. I felt, this is what I'm good at. This is what I should have been doing all along," he said.

He started writing nonfiction books about baseball for young readers before moving on to other subjects.

The idea for his breakthrough My Weird School stories came a few years later as he was reading the Junie B. Jones series about the adventures of a girl in elementary school with his daughter, Emma.

"I thought there should be something like Junie B. Jones told by a boy,'' said Gutman, who was raising his children in Haddonfield at the time with his wife Nina. "That is what inspired My Weird School.''

The books are narrated by the main character, A.J., who starts the series as a second grader and begins many of the books by saying how much he hates school. Gutman said he had no idea the book would turn into a series when he wrote the first story, Miss Daisy Is Crazy!

"I sent it to HarperCollins, and they said how about three more? And how about four more? And it kept going like that until we've reached over 100,'' Gutman said. "It is the most successful thing I've done in my career.''

Gutman said he was able to keep the series going by focusing each book on a different grown-up at the school. He's written about the art teacher (Ms. Hannah is Bananas!), the music teacher (Mr. Hynde Is Out of His Mind!), the health teacher (Ms. Leakey Is Freaky!) and kept going.

One of his goals is to hook children who aren't fans of reading.

"I know a lot of kids, especially a lot of boys, are reluctant readers," Gutman said. "I was a reluctant reader myself and thought reading was boring and hard. I thought if I could hook them in with that first sentence, I could draw in some of those kids."

He said it takes about a month to write each book in the series and four new stories come out each year. In total he has written nearly 200 books that are part of several different series including the Genius Files series, the Baseball Card Adventure series, the "Wait, What?'' series of biographies and many others.

Alumna Mary Cook Jenison recently learned that Gutman was a fellow Rutgers graduate, a fact that is special to her because his books meant so much to her children growing up.

"I keep a running 'brag list' of famous people from New Jersey, with a special focus on Rutgers alumni that I share with friends and relatives at every opportunity," Jenison said. "When I discovered that Dan Gutman was a Rutgers alumnus, I was excited and proud to tell my family.''

She said Gutman's books helped her children connect with reading.

"My son Luke - who was not a reader - liked them because they were funny, and I guess it didn't feel like schoolwork when he read them," Jenison said. "My daughter Grace - who was and still is a voracious reader - liked them because it was almost like a little treat , a book to read for fun. Her favorite was Mayor Hubble Is in Trouble!"

Her daughter, who is now studying to be an elementary school teacher, is always looking for My Weird School books to use in her future classroom.

"She feels that the My Weird School books are relatable to kids because they are so funny, and that if she can encourage kids to read fun books, she can nurture their love for reading in general," Jenison said.

Gutman said he's heard many similar stories over the years.

"I've received countless emails from parents and teachers and librarians telling me that their sons, their daughters, or their students didn't like to read. Then they pick up their first My Weird School book and all they want to do is read them night and day,'' Gutman said. "It feels so good to write these silly words on a page and find that they've made such a positive impact on so many kids' lives.''