Author Interview: David Neilsen

Today is the day. Today is when you should all be getting your hands on Dr. Fell and the Playground of Doom. Remember my rave review a week or so back? Yep, I'm back today, on the book's birthday, to share an interview with the author.

"David Neilsen is the author of Dr. Fell and the Playground of Doom, and several other odd, weird, supernatural, and occasionally slightly disturbing books and stories. David is also a professionally trained actor who works as a professional storyteller up and down the Hudson River Valley and in New York City. His one-man performances based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft have sent many screaming into the hills in search of their sanity." (David-Neilsen.com)

Well, on that intriguing note, let's get this party started...

E: Hi David! Thanks so much for doing this interview. I admit, I'm quite a fan of this book. How did you get the idea for the story? When did you first run into the name "Dr. Fell"?

D: The idea for the book came from an illustration by the late children's illustrator Trina Schart Hyman. It had been hanging on the wall of my in-laws' for years. It shows a man in a suit and top hat leering down at a little girl, who looks back at him suspiciously. The man has a large basket strapped to his back out of which are sticking various arms, legs, and heads of little children. It’s labelled "Dr. Fell" and Hyman drew it when asked to create an image from her favorite fable or fairy tale. Curious, I looked up Dr. Fell online and discovered the four-line poem written in 1680 which I’ve included at the beginning of my book.

Right away all sorts of questions jumped into my head. Who is this guy? What is he doing? What happens when he comes to town? The story began to take form when I went about answering these questions.

Dr. Fell and the Playground of Doom

Dr. Fell and the Playground of Doom
David Neilsen

My rating: ★★★★½

ISBN: 978-1101935781
Publisher: Crown Books
Date of publication: August 9, 2016
Age: Grades 3 - 6
Genre: Mystery, Horror
Format: ARC received from author

Themes: playgrounds, childhood, friendship, monster, good vs evil, community

When the mysterious Dr. Fell moves into the abandoned house that had once been the neighborhood kids’ hangout, he immediately builds a playground to win them over. Soon, kids from across the city are flocking to the ever-expanding structure to play for hours on end. But it's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt. In a flash, Dr. Fell has them fixed up—totally healed!—and only Jerry, Nancy, and Gail find it odd. In fact, these three seem to be the only people in the whole neighborhood not bewitched by Dr. Fell and his extravagant wonderland. As the number of injuries increases, they alone must find a way to uncover the doctor's secret healing power—and his darker ulterior motive—without falling under his spell.

This book is amazing. Creepy, hilarious, exciting, disturbing, and completely brilliant all in one. Yes, it is that awesome. I read it practically in one sitting. While it is a spooky mystery, the humor is what really made me love it. With a bit of a parody undertone (what with the kids attending McKinley Grant Fillmore Elementary or Washington Madison Hoover Elementary or Lincoln Adams Coolidge Elementary), it definitely feels like Jerry, Nancy, and Gail (I mean, seriously, even their names) fell right out of Beaver Cleaver's neighborhood into the 21st century. I seriously laughed more with this book than any I've read in a while. Granted, I was picking up on a lot of the satire that may be missed by some younger readers, but kids will still get plenty of laughs.

Okay, but beyond the humor, there was a wonderful dose of creepy. The story moves along quickly, leaving just enough hints and ideas to keep the reader guessing at the mystery of Dr. Fell. There's some truly eerie scenes that will keep even the most reluctant of readers on edge. And the characters themselves were surprisingly deep; Neilsen could've easily stuck in some flat caricatures to go with the Beaver Cleaver theme and gotten away with it. But Jerry, Nancy, and Gail each have some insecurities and fears that really made it easy to be invested in their characters.

My only complaint—the tiny, half-star complaint—was the ending. Definitely exciting and scary, but let's just say Neilsen left room for a sequel, which left me a bit frustrated. On the whole, I seriously want kids to read this. They'll have a lot of fun, especially with the recent rise in popularity of spooky stories, or titles like Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library and Scavenger Hunt.

Find it at your library or on Amazon

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