HUTCHINSON SCHOOL– Mr. Laurence Pringle came to Hutchinson School on February 11th, and he sure left his mark!

He gave us a glimpse of his great techniques. He left great wisdom in all the crevices of our school. The great science writer, Mr. Pringle, taught us what he does when he writes.  He said, “I always have a pen. Writers always have a pen. As long as you’re conscious, you can be writing.”

Mr. Pringle has written 115 books. He said, “I wrote my first book about 50 years ago. It took me several weeks to write it, I kept sending it out, and it kept getting rejected.”  He writes a lot of books. He wrote his first one in 1968. It was very fun meeting him.  He is so nice and very smart.

-Ava Paolucci

“I have four fiction books written,” shared Mr. Pringle when asked if he likes writing fiction or non-fiction better.  “I don’t try writing fiction very often.  If my fiction book was published, I would be very happy.”

“I have written for magazines, but they get thrown out.  Books stay longer and more alive,” he explained when asked why he likes to write books.  “The newest book I wrote is called The Secret Life Of The Little Brown Bat.”

-Rachael Janos

Mr. Pringle has a wide variety of favorite authors, from George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones) to E.B. White (Charlotte’s Web).

When he first became an author, he wrote at a desk with a typewriter.  Now he has an office with a desk, a computer, and a window with the view of the woods and a pond.

-Courtney Valente

“Humans are curious about other living things and animals,” reported Mr. Pringle.  I have always loved animals.

When asked if he uses other people’s great ideas in his writing, he answered, “Only in the sense that it may have been a good quote, but I’d still change it a little bit.”

-Olivia Medrano

Mr. Pringle is not currently working on writing a book. His shortest book took him weeks to write.  Mr. Pringle wrote a book about octopuses. He likes to use the words “strange” and “wonderful.”

-Lucy Ow

Mr. Pringle shared, “As a kid, I was not very good at anything except for reading, and you can’t earn a living with reading. I took baby steps to being a writer.”

-Amelia Desmarais

Mr. Pringle said that it can be hard to come up with a decent sentence. Mr. Pringle was very interesting in the interview because he always had an interesting answer to our questions.

For example, when I asked Mr. Pringle why he chose to write non-fiction books instead of fiction books, he replied, “When I studied biology and writing, I did more non-fiction writing instead because that’s what I was used to. Once in a while, I may write fiction books. I’m not the kind of guy that can do both like let’s say, David Adler.  That’s why I stuck with non-fiction.”

I think Lawrence Pringle is an amazing author and it was an honor to meet him.

-Natalia Sujica