Wow 

Famed director Chris Columbus was actually inspired to turn his screenplay-in-progress into a novel after he read books by young Ned Vizzini! Who knew? I just read about it on the Huffington Post.

I think it's interesting because Columbus has been making movies for so many years (like Home Alone) and he was inspired by a guy younger than I am, who was writing stuff about his high school for New York Press when I first came to New York.  Columbus is a bit of a wunderkind too, actually.  I oughta read the novel.