"What I love about entering the children's book field at this age," says playwright and cartoonist Jules Feiffer, " is being stupid. The problem with doing a weekly cartoon for as many years as I have," he goes on to explain, "is that I'm too sophisticated.  I wish I could start that from scratch and know how to be dumb about it, but I can't. Being dumb about children's books, makes me child-like in the best way because it returns me to my innocence."

Jimmy Jibbett, the hero of Feiffer's first children's novel, The Man in the Ceiling (HarperCollins, $15.00; ages 9-13) is, like his creator, an innocent. Jimmy gives a preadolescent view that is fresh, unusual, and underrepresented. Jimmy, a ten-year-old cartoonist, lives with a difficult family. His cute younger sister, Susu, wheedles attention. His older sister, Lisi, has yet to give up temper tantrums (probably because they serve her so effectively). His father struggles to change from a driven businessman to a sensitive male. Jimmy's mother, hides from her children in an attic "sanctum sanctorum" designing clothes and chiding Jimmy whenever he behaves "ungenerously."

Jimmy is, in fact, the most generous child ever depicted in a middle grade novel. Jimmy is compassionate and understanding, never martyring, always accepting. "What's unusually about Jimmy, " says Feiffer, "is that he's really not angry at his family. He's just trying to understand things and so much in the adult world is beyond his understanding. Jimmy's the kind of kid who always exists for the purpose of the grownups, not for himself, as if he's there to serve them."

One of Feiffer's favorite chapters of The Man in the Ceiling takes place when Jimmy's mother lectures him (ad nauseam) about an article she's read about Picasso. "Jimmy's there to listen to her monologues which her husband will not be there for." Jimmy's mother's preoccupation is not all bad. Feiffer believes "there's nothing wrong with a certain degree of neglect." He believes that over-attentive, over-caring, over-solicitous parents of today are neglecting in a new way. "They manipulate a kid into telling the secrets they may not want to tell so that the kid has no privacy, or protection of inner thoughts, and in a way, that stifles the imagination. There's an important part of a kid that should be hidden, but that always discomforts parents."

Like Feiffer, Jimmy's a middle child "and middle children are the negotiators. They're the ones who stands a little aloof while the older and younger kids are the dramatic players. Generally the people who aren't the major players are the ones who do the books and art because they feel so trampled that they have to find some other means of expressing themselves."

As a child, Feiffer, like Jimmy, found a refuge and comfort in art. "I drew all the time. I drew comics day after day, that's all I cared about. Kids, unless they're really deprived of all the affection they deserve, have their own system of salvation and protection."

As Feiffer wrote Jimmy's story he began to realize that he wanted to write about the process of failure; "about kids who see failure as a judgement on their lives. When I was a kid, no one but adults told me that failure was a process and of course you don't believe the adults around you. It's partly because of the way they say it. 'You'll get over this' or 'You'll do better', or 'Just keep trying' means anything to a kid." Instead of lecturing, Feiffer develops Charley Beemer, a golden boy who bullies Jimmy into drawing comics he engineers. Charley's demands activate a series of artistic struggles for Jimmy. "Charley, to me, represented all these kids who come to maturity early and lead a full life which ends at 16 or 17. Then they disappear without a trace. Having had no experience with failure, when they move on to college and discover there are people who are better athletes, better scientists, or at least real competition, they don't know how to accept and deal with it. So they pull back, hunker down, and remain in a kind of passive withdrawal for the rest of their lives. It fascinated me to think of what happened to these golden boys. That's another story I may write one day."

"Late-blooming Jimmy on the other hand, who's had experience with failure, is in good shape to work things out. Because of so much of Jimmy is me, I know he's going to be all right."

Feiffer also gives Jimmy the ally he never had. Jimmy's Uncle Lester is an artist who's happiest creating and has his own struggles with failure. The two support each other through rough spots because they are both compelled and satisfied by art. Their connection brings a good bit of magic to the book including the triumphant, epiphany-like, wordless ending. Feiffer wants to continue to bring words and pictures together for older readers. "I've never understood why the older kids are, the less pictures there are in their books, until there are no pictures at all. So there will be even more pictures in my next book." Feiffer is currently working on another book for the same age group, a fairy tale "about a man who goes on a quest that turns into chaos and comes out of it.   I'm a great believer in chaos bringing good fortune."

Hopefully the chaos of writing children's books will continue to help Feiffer to renew his innocence. "I'm continually discovering things that I didn't know were there to be discovered. I'm trying to figure out how it all works, figuring out my own actions, and growing. I don't want this growing to go too fast."

As Feiffer fiercely desires his children's book innocence to remain, he wishes the same for children. "When kids grow up too fast, they're just putting on a veneer and they think they're grown up. Maybe protecting innocence is one of the best things you can do for a child."

©Susie Wilde 1998