THE GUY WHO JUST REVIEWED MY NEW BOOK SOUNDS LIKE HE’S STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL.

He is. His name is John Masse, and of the 40,000 fans on James Patterson’s Community website, John is the one whose blog reviews on the site are featured in Patterson’s newsletter.

He’s 16 years old (until next month) and lives in New Hampshire. He hasn’t been writing long. When I spoke to him last night, he said he only started writing outside of the classroom when he joined the Patterson site less than a year ago. Now he’s writing reviews, interviewing authors, and most fascinating to me, encouraging other kids his age to find their own potential.

“I want to help other kids find their focus, their drive,” he said. “What is it that makes you want to get up in the morning and go to work or go to school? I found what I want to do, and I want to help others do the same thing.”

Johnny is 16, going on adult role model.

His review for Flipping Out, was just posted on the JP community site. But because he is totally methodical and focused, John insisted on starting from Book 1. He read through The Rabbit Factory and Bloodthirsty, reviewed them both, and only then was he ready to tackle Flipping Out. It was a lot of work in a short time, and he still managed get his homework done.

As far as I’m concerned Johnny Masse is one special 16-year-old dude. I vaguely remember that when I was 16, I wasn’t quite that cool. Unless you consider getting suspended for running a sports betting pool a major achievement I could use on my college essays.

Administratrix posted on April 2, 2009 3:00 PM