Author Visit: Maureen Sherry Chats With Elementary Kids at Library

Participants in the recent family book program at Sayville Library were treated to a special visit by the author. Children grades three to five took part in reading “Walls Within Walls” this summer by New York City-based author Maureen Sherry. All the participants took part in a book discussion last week where they got to talk about the mystery novel.

The family mystery takes place all over New York City. When the Smithfork family moves into a lavish apartment building, they discover clues to a decades-old mystery hidden behind the walls of their new home. Maureen Sherry came to the library to talk to the participants about how the book came to fruition.

“A lot of writers write about what they know,” Sherry said. “I have four children and I kept thinking about how much I enjoyed reading what they were reading. Many children got into the Harry Potter books. My daughter didn’t like that genre. She liked mysteries and really responded to those types of books so that’s how I started in the mystery writing.”

Sherry added that her family is really into puzzles, codes and secret messages, just like the book. “I would leave code messages or puzzles in my children’s lunchboxes,” she said. “They really liked to break the codes and solve the mysteries.”

There are many parallels between the author’s real-life experiences and the book. Just like the four Smithfork children in the book, Sherry’s four children also live in an apartment in NYC and have moved on several occasions. “Each time we moved, we felt a little sad, so I wanted to leave a little message for the next apartment dwellers. I put some songs on an iPod shuffle and left it buried deep in the wall with a note,” she said. “I left songs that were memories for our family to their family and I even left the charger because I figured when someone found it in 50 years, they would need to charge it. Unfortunately, I got a package containing the iPod from the new owners about two weeks later in the mail.”

Sherry told the children about the next apartment they lived in, where they were renovating everything and all the walls were open. “We decided to put a hidden message behind our walls,” she said. “My husband writes poems so he wrote a poem about our family that is hidden behind the walls.”  She showed slides of the mystery in her own apartment from hidden keys to stretch writing, and magnetized walls.

Sherry and her family traveled to the NYC spots listed in the book to decide where they wanted the treasures to be hidden. “I would also write a chapter and give it to my children for their feedback,” she said. “My oldest son likes information and facts, just like the character CJ in the book. And my oldest daughter likes to write things down in her journal, just like Brid.”

Sherry also told the children about the process from writing the book to getting it published. It starts with a manuscript and goes through multiple copy-editing processes, page layout, illustration and then to galley, all before publication. The code on the cover of the book leads you to clues about the sequel, which will take place with the same Smithfork characters in a London hotel.