Student Takeover with Drew Daywalt

🎧 Episode Show Notes

Student Takeover with Drew Daywalt

In this special episode of the PHPS Difference Podcast, we’re handing the microphones over to our students for a Student Takeover!

Fifth graders Penny and Wells lead the conversation as they interview bestselling children’s author Drew Daywalt, known for beloved books like The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home.

Joined by fellow students James, Mila, Caroline, and Allie, this episode is filled with curiosity, creativity, and plenty of fun as students take the lead in asking thoughtful—and sometimes surprising—questions.

🧠 What We Discuss

• How Drew Daywalt comes up with ideas for his books
• His experiences growing up with dyslexia and dyscalculia
• What school was like for him as a student
• The role of creativity, imagination, and humor in storytelling
• A behind-the-scenes look at writing and being an author

⚡ PHPS Speed Round

Our student readers jump in with a fast-paced round of questions, including:

• Favorite color, snack, and writing spot
• Morning vs. night writing
• Dogs or cats
• And even… what animal would make the best writing buddy

📚 Books & Authors Mentioned

• The Day the Crayons Quit
• The Day the Crayons Came Home
• They Call Me No Sam
• Forty the Fortune Teller
• Tony DiTerlizzi
• Rutgers and the Water-Snouts

🌱 A Moment That Stands Out

Drew shares openly about his own experiences with dyslexia and dyscalculia, offering a powerful reminder that learning differences can shape creativity, perspective, and success in meaningful ways.

🎙️ Why This Episode Matters

At PHPS, we believe in creating opportunities for students to use their voice, ask questions, and engage with the world around them. This episode is a joyful example of what happens when students take the lead—and a meaningful reminder that different learners can grow into creative, confident adults.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to the PHPS Difference Podcast. My name is Penny, and I'm a fifth grader at Preston Hollow Presbyterian School in Dallas, Texas.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

And I'm Weld, also a fifth grader at PHPS. Today we're doing something special: a student takeover of the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

And today we get to interview a very special guest. But before we start, we actually have a question. At our school, we call our teachers Mr. and Mrs. in their last name. So we weren't sure what to call you. Should we call you Mr. Daywalt? Or just Drew?

SPEAKER_02 0:39

I would like you to call me Lord Drew Daywalt the Great. No, you guys can call me Drew.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Okay. Perfect. Welcome to the PHPS Difference podcast. We're so glad you're here. You've written a lot of great books. Many kids know you from the day the Crowns quit and the day the Crowns came home.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

A lot of our students have also been reading They Call Me Know Sam.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

You also have a new book called Forty the Fortune Teller. How do you usually come up with the ideas for your books?

SPEAKER_02 1:12

Oh, you just started with the hardest question in the whole world. Um, I don't know. You know, when you're walking down the street, you just get a really funny creative idea, or you're brushing your teeth, or you're in the shower washing your hair, or well, you guys aren't driving yet, but we get a lot of thoughts when we're driving too. And sometimes it just hits you. It's like lightning. And it's like, ooh, that's a good idea. But you know what else hits you all the time? Bad ideas. And then you go write them, and then you have bad books, and you're like, I can't send this anywhere. So they all come from the same place.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

We have to ask you at least one crayon question. Which crayon is your favorite?

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Which crayon is my favorite? I like beige. Because beige. I like pink too, but I'm gonna change my answer to beige. Um, beige is fun because he starts off so sad in the first book. Remember how sad he is? Yeah, he's so sad. Why does he why is he sad? You guys remember what he said?

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Because he's always naked.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Oh, no. Well, that's oh, that's Peach. He's naked. Well, okay, yeah, he's he's got he's got all kinds of problems. Um beige is the one who's sad because he only gets to color something.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Um I forgot.

unknown 2:20

I forgot what's called.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

Wheat. That's how that's why see even he's sad because he's like, no kids ever even remember me. Because I color wheat, and he says, if I'm lucky I get a turkey dinner. Are you guys excited about coloring turkey dinners?

SPEAKER_00 2:33

No, no.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

See, that's why I like Beige because nobody else likes him. But in the new books, as we've gone along, um, he's become much more interesting and much funnier. So he's happier too, which is good.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

At our school, all of our students have learning differences. What was school like for you when you were a kid?

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Uh it was 13 years of one long learning difference because I wasn't like any of the their kids. I went to a traditional school and I had pretty bad dyslexia. I don't know if anybody here has dyslexia, but I do, and I'm proud of it, so I will raise my hand. I have dyslexia. I also have dyscalculia, which I think I'm pronouncing correctly, which is the math version of that, except I have dyslexia so bad I have I usually mispronounce that. So I can't even pronounce the other thing I have because of the other thing I have. And that's uh that wasn't diagnosed for me until I got to college. Can I share something really, really sort of sad but kind of funny with you guys? I got F's in math. Sophomore, junior, and senior year. And I got all other A's and B's mostly. And they just went, Oh, you're just not very good at math. So then I got to college, and a uh doctor, like a psychologist, said, Hey, can I give you a test? And I was like, sure, what kind? And he goes, It's a math test. And I went, No, I'm terrible at math. And he gave me the test, and it took me two hours because it was really hard. It was algebra. And he brought it back to me after he graded it, and he says, I have good news and I have bad news, Drew. And I said, Well, what's which one's which? And he goes, Well, the bad news is you just failed the test and you got them all wrong. I said, Well, big surprise. I've been failing math for three years. He says, Well, there's good news. I said, What is it? And he goes, We know why now. And I said, Why? And he said, You have been it's called transposing, it's a big word, but it's where you switch numbers. So I would switch, like if the number was 12, I would accidentally make it 21. But what I would also do is turn it upside down and backwards, like you were looking in a mirror. So I couldn't even read math sometimes. So I was guessing. He said, So the good news, he says, if I switch the numbers on every math problem, turn them upside down, and then flip them like they're in a mirror, and then I grade it, you got 100%. He said, So you understand the math, but you can't read it. So I said, Well, now what do I do? And he's like, Well, how about being an English major? So I studied writing because I did I did well in writing. But yeah, I struggled with that all the time and no one ever knew. This was way back in the 80s when they didn't even have the doctors didn't know yet.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Before our speed round, we want to introduce a few of our top Drew Daywalt readers. These students have checked out the most Drew Daywalt books from our PHPS library. So we thought they would be perfect to help with this part of the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Awesome. Can you introduce yourselves? Hi, my name is James. Hi, my name is Mayla. Hi, my name is Allie. Hi, my name is Carolyn.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

All right, Drew. Now it's time for the PHPS speed round.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Ready?

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Three, two, one. Speed round. When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

SPEAKER_02 5:47

When I was seven years old, and I'm gonna talk about that today at the presentation. After seeing the first Star Wars in 1977, I saw there was someone who wrote it and went, I wanna write this.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

I was thinking that you were going to say seven and I weren't.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

Yeah, how old are you? Eight. Eight? Okay, you just figured seven because it's lucky.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

What is your favorite color?

SPEAKER_02 6:11

Favorite color. I'm gonna say pink because I remember I said beige for the crayon. I'm gonna say pink. Um because I didn't like pink growing up. I thought this is gonna sound bad, but I'm better now. I was I thought it was a girl's color, which is wrong, and that's why I put it that way in the book, because it is wrong. It's an everybody color. Um, and then I had a daughter, um, Abigail, and she taught me the joys of pink and lavender and teal and purple and all those colors. And then I had a son, and I thought, oh, okay, well, here he's gonna come up with different colors, and he's like, Nope, pink and lavender and teal and all of those light colors. So I pink is my new favorite color.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Do you like funny books or adventure books better?

SPEAKER_02 6:54

Ooh. I like adventure books. I'm reading adventure books now, actually. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Do you like dogs or cats better?

SPEAKER_02 7:03

Oh, that's not fair. I like dogs and cats. Um, did you know that when I was little I had a pet raccoon? My dad was a fireman. I grew up in Ohio, and they rescued a bunch of baby raccoons whose whose mommy was gone, and they said somebody needs to take care of these things. So I my mom and I volunteered because mom was a nurse, and she's like, I think we can figure this out. So we bottle fed it, and it became our pet for a whole year. So I'm gonna say raccoons.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

What is your favorite snack?

SPEAKER_02 7:33

Oh everything. I'm gonna say chocolate chip cookies. That's what we have for people. I well, yeah. Well, I still have a box down there, and you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna eat the whole box before you guys get there, like a T-Rex.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Do you like writing in the morning or at night?

SPEAKER_02 7:53

Okay, I used to write scary things because before I became a children's book author, I was a uh screenplay writer. Screenplay writer. I live in Los Angeles, Hollywood, California. And we would I I would write scary movies and things. And I like to write at night because I thought, ooh, it's scarier to write ghost stories at night. But now that I um I've raised two children, I have Abigail, who's 22 now. They're old kids, so they're not really kids anymore. And then Reese is 16. Because I have kids, uh, I had to get up early and get them breakfast and stuff. So I am a morning writer now.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Where is your favorite place to write?

SPEAKER_02 8:33

Um, my favorite place to write is in my leather chair. My very old leather chair. I'll show you guys a picture of it later in the presentation. But it's in the corner of my studio and it's super comfy, and I've written almost every book for children in that chair in my laptop. I have like a little desk thing, like a pillow that it's on my lap, and I can't put my laptop in that chair. If I could have any writing buddy, who would I pick? You don't know who he is, but he's a very famous writer. He wrote a series of books about dragons that I like a lot. And he makes a lot of money, so I get half of the money.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Like the um, why did the dragons roll the night?

SPEAKER_02 9:28

Um, it's a different one than that, but it's pretty, it's a it's a pretty good book. You'll guys you'll read it when you're grown-ups. That's a good one. If I had to pick a children's book author, want me to pick a children's book author, I would say uh there's an author named Tony Dieter Lizzy. Tony did a lot of the art for Dungeons and Dragons and Magic the Gathering, and he does all the card fantasy art. He did the Spider Wick Chronicles, and he did a book series called Wundla, and he is one of my absolute favorite artists. And I just started talking to him, and we're going to do a book series for middle grade.

unknown 10:02

Pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

What is your favorite?

SPEAKER_02 10:09

I like to play with my dogs and drink coffee. And uh I'll say kids too, but they're off doing their own things now. Um, but yes, uh, I have two children who are both going to be writers when they grow up. My daughter Abigail, who is 22, is off at college to be a creative writer. And my son is in high school and he's a creative writer, so our dinner tables are all talking about what stories we're working on and how to fix them. So it's kind of a family business. That's one of my favorite things to do is talk about story making.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

All right, Joe, you survived the PHPS speed round.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

Whoa! Just barely.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Before we wrap up, we have one more question we always ask our podcast guests.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

What are you reading right now? Or what's your f what was your favorite book you remember loving when you were a kid?

SPEAKER_02 11:04

Okay, this is you want me to give your teachers and your librarian homework. I'm gonna give them homework. Does that sound good?

unknown 11:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

No, oh, James is so nice. He doesn't want you guys to have homework. Okay, so here's the homework for the teachers and for parents and guardians and everybody else and grandparents. There is a book called Rutgers and the Water Snouts. I and I exactly, James, I know you haven't heard of it. It is, I didn't I didn't like to read when I was your age. I was a reluctant reader, okay? And I had a librarian who kept trying and trying and trying, and she finally got a book into my hands called Rutgers and the Water Snouts. And it is like if Winnie the Pooh was really, really, really funny, like dogman funny, like really like Captain Underpants funny. And it was written way back in 1969, and when my teacher handed it to me in 1979, it was already out of print and forgotten. And it's a super rare book. Um, and if you can find it, it's really funny. And I recently bought it on one on eBay and I bought a copy because I didn't have a copy. And I thought, I wonder if it's still funny, or maybe I just liked it when I was little. And you know what? It's still really, really funny. So I still recommend that book. So if you can find it, you can usually buy it cheap on eBay for like $10 or $12. And I say read it because it's super funny. That's why I write funny books.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Drew, thank you so much for joining us. We loved getting to talk with you. This was a student takeover of the PHPS Difference Podcast.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

You guys are awesome. Thank you. That was great.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

And remember, keep reading.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

Yeah, keep reading, you guys.