Though the 5th grade book group members love Avi’s Crispin series, there is one thing that really irks them:  Avi’s name.  “What’s his real name?” they ask me.  “Why does he only use the name ‘Avi’?  That’s just dumb,” they say.

So before last Tuesday’s book group, I decided to do a little research and see what I could find out about Avi’s true identity.  On his official website, Avi makes it quite clear that the only name he wants public is Avi.  But I kept poking around, and within fifteen minutes I had discovered his true name (not too hard, it turned out), AND I had also confirmed the validity of his true name through a cryptic quote issued by Avi himself on an online chat with students.  At our book group meeting, I told the kids present what Avi’s real name is, and (sorry, Avi), they giggled. 

Why does this all matter?  Why did I feel driven to uncover Avi’s identity?  Partly because I’m a nosy so-and-so, partly because I despise pretension, partly because the kids asked me over and over and over to do this, and partly because it was a challenge.  It’s almost as if Avi’s real name wouldn’t matter to me or to the kids if he didn’t so firmly reject it.  The rejection of his name is what drives our curiosity: surely the name must be amazing in some way, and surely there must be a really good reason compelling him to cast it aside with such finality.  It’s really none of our business, but we’re humans and we want to know.

In the end, the name was disappointingly ordinary, and once I shared the information with the kids, we all quickly moved on and had a fantastic conversation about the book at hand, never again mentioning Avi’s real name.  We knew, so it didn’t matter anymore.

And though I know now, I won’t be sharing the information here.  If you care to find out, discovering Avi’s real name is an excellent exercise in research (that’s my inner librarian speaking – research is good for your soul).