Children's author Derek Taylor Kent featured in UCLA's Daily Bruin

The Daily Bruin talks with children's author and alumnus Derek Taylor Kent about his new children's book series SCARY SCHOOL to be published in June 2011 by HarperCollins:"Kent has been writing since the age of 15, creating various forms of amusement with premises not quite as spooky. For one free-form assignment in a UCLA astronomy course, Kent penned an interplanetary-themed story aimed for a younger audience, using his professor, Simon Balm, as the main character. After some tweaks and some illustrations, Kent had “Simon and the Solar System,” his first book aimed for younger children.As an undergraduate student in UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television in the late 1990s, Kent produced a short musical called “Michael Jordan’s Magic Shoes.” With just a boombox and other minimal props, Kent told a story centered around the famous basketball player’s discovery of sneakers with mystical powers."For the full article, visit: http://ow.ly/4Hlof