Phantom Phobias: Fear Propels Children’s Series

By [Linnea Covington] At various points in her life, author Gitty Daneshvari has shared phobias with the four main characters in her School of Fear book series. Bugs freaked her out like Madeleine, the ocean gave her chills like Garrison, everything worried her like Theo and, until recently, she madly avoided elevators like Lulu. â??I was the most neurotic child and literally worried about everything, she said. â??I worried about getting kidnapped in the grocery story, getting trapped in a bathroom, getting Windex on my hands and accidently touching my eye and blinding myself, the list goes on and on. It was the memory of these fears that inspired Daneshvari to write the first School of Fear book in 2009, shortly after she finished her debut adult novel The Makedown. Her second book in the series came out in September and she is currently churning out the third one, slated to be published next fall. And, if everything goes right, there should be a movie in the works since Warner Brothers immediately bought the rights to the stories before she even finished them. It makes sense that they would go for the books. Daneshvari"s dry wit and slightly morbid characters bring to mind Lemony Snicket"s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Roald Dahl novels and Tim Burton films. She also has a whimsical way of writing and, though they are for the middle grades, the subject and storylines are appealing to readers of all ages. The books revolve around the four aforementioned characters, who are sent to Mrs. Wellington"s School of Fear by their fed-up parents as a means to conquer their various phobias. From London comes the veiled Madeleine, whose fear of bugs takes over her life. Garrison is the handsome sporty boy who actually sends himself to the school in order to get over his fear of large bodies of water, which hinders his Florida beach-going. After a stint involving handcuffs and an airplane, Lulu"s uptight parents decide it"s time she gets over her claustrophobia. Then there is Theo, who is so worried about dying he can"t go two minutes without checking on his large family. â??All the characters are me in terms of the fears and bits of their personalities, the 32-year-old said while sitting on her leather couch surrounded by her â??children, aka dog Harriet and two cats, Turbo and Moby. â??I am like Madeleine because she is very well-mannered, like Theo where I am so dramatic and think everything is such a big deal, and I am like Lulu because I can definitely be bossy. Daneshvari is especially bossy towards her only sibling, an older sister, a trend, she said, that has prevailed throughout their whole life growing up between Los Angeles, Calif., and Cairo, Egypt. Her mother is American and her father Iranian so the family tended to travel a lot. This is where her inner Lulu kicked in and Daneshvari would constantly evoke her sister"s help watching the bathroom door for her on airplanes because she was too afraid to lock it. â??While I was writing The Makedown I was thinking about how crazy, phobic and frightful I was as a child, she said. â??I realized that while many kids might not have as many fears as I have, everyone is afraid of something, and that"s how the idea sprung. Before she got into writing, Daneshvari worked on films, which she studied at the University of Santa Cruz. But as soon as she got her first book deal in her mid-twenties, she gave it up and has been writing ever since. In 2008 Daneshvari left L.A. and came to New York, where she planned on only staying for the summer. But, amid her â??Woody Allen inspired walks in Central Park, the joy of not driving and her overall happiness with the city, Daneshvari decided to stay here for good. She recently moved to the Upper West Side and said one of her favorite things to do is to take her rescued bulldog Harriet on walks and sneak her into the Time Warner Center to get coffee and look at books at Borders. As she settles into her new one-bedroom apartment, Daneshvari admitted that writing the School of Fear books helped to contain the fears that were plaguing her life. â??Now all my fears are manageable, she said while gazing out the window toward Lincoln Center. â??Look! I even live in an elevator building now.