Who among us didn’t have one of those days in middle school when you wish the world would end? For Hap Conklin, that’s actually a very real prospect. Conklin is the young, sometimes bearded character at the center of a series of middle grade novels by Milwaukee native, and New Yorker contributor, Paul Noth.
The latest is called How to Properly Dispose of Planet Earth, and it describes Conklin's attempts to impress his would-be lab partner, Nev Everly.
"He figures out a way that he could stop time in order to think of something clever and funny to say, and that would allow him to ask her to be his lab partner," Conklin explains.
Like his previous book, How to Sell Your Family to the Aliens, his latest middle grade novel channels Noth's experiences growing up with eight siblings.
"I grew up with this idea that there’s sort of a complicated group dynamic or sort of political palace intrigue going on among the siblings — who has power and who doesn’t," says Noth.
Paul Noth will be in Milwaukee Saturday, Feb. 2, for an event at Boswell Book Company at 12 p.m.
