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Authors bring Nerdfighting to Menchville High School
More than 200 'Nerdfighters' gather
Newport News Public Library System and Newport News Public Schools co-sponsored the visit of John and Hank Green to Menchville High School on Nov. 9. The brothers discussed their popular video series Brotherhood 2.0, an experiment in keeping long-distance siblings close via videoblogs. John also read excerpts from his new young adult novel, “Paper Towns."
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. 2008 Nov 14
“We are Nerdfighters. … We fight using our brains, our hearts, our calculators and our trombones,” more than 200 people chanted along with John and Hank Green at Menchville High School on Nov. 9 during the Great American Tour de Nerdfighting 2008. The author event was co-sponsored by the Newport News Public Library System and Newport News Public Schools.
John Green is a young adult novelist and the author of “Looking for Alaska,” “An Abundance of Katherines,” and his newly released novel “Paper Towns.” His brother Hank is founder and editor of EcoGeek.org and costar of the TV show “The G Word.”
The brothers discussed their popular video series Brotherhood 2.0, an experiment in keeping long-distance siblings close via videoblogs. Since Jan. 1, 2007, they sent 369 YouTube videos to each other, and their videoblogs have been watched by more than 11 million viewers, creating a tight-knit virtual community that refers to itself as Nerdfighters.
John and Hank said the Great Tour de Nerdfighting 2008 is their “opportunity to meet our favorite Nerdfighters,” which included Megan Foreman, age 13, her mom Kim Foreman, and Megan's friend Ally Marble, also 13, who traveled more than 11 hours from Canandaigua, New York, to Newport News for the event.
John read excerpts from his new young adult novel, “Paper Towns,” which has been on the New York Times Best Seller list for three weeks, and discussed how the novel looks at the relationship between the world we draw and the way it really is.
“We have to be careful in the way we imagine ourselves and the world around us,” he said. “We all contain multitudes.”
After the book discussion, Nerdfighting fans cheered and sang along with Hank as he performed his popular Nerdfighting songs, including one of his songs he wrote about Helen Hunt.
When John announced “Question Tuesday,” he and Hank answered questions from the audience. When asked how one becomes a Nerdfighter, John responded, “If you want to become one you already are one.”
They also discussed reading and called libraries “the great equalizers.”
“As a writer I am fortunate to have readers who are thoughtful, who are critical with such depth,” John said.
Afterwards, a long line of eager fans waited for John and Hank to sign their copies of “Paper Towns” and Hank’s Nerdfighting CD. After signing books, CDs, t-shirts, cameras, hats, and more, John and Hank posed for pictures with their fellow Nerdfighters.
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