Aug 24, 2020
This week I get walk through the labyrinth with author Wendelin Van Draanen.
Wendelin Van Draanen has written more than thirty novels for
young readers and teens. She is the author of the 18-book
Edgar-winning Sammy Keyes series—often called
“The new Nancy Drew”—and wrote Flipped, which
was named a Top 100 Children’s Novel for the 21st
Century by School Library Journal and became a Warner
Brothers feature film, with Rob Reiner directing.
Her other stand-alone titles include Wild
Bird, The Secret Life of Lincoln
Jones, Runaway, Confessions of a Serial
Kisser, Swear to Howdy, and The
Running Dream, which was awarded American Library
Association’s Schneider Family Award for its "expression of the
disability experience."
Van Draanen has also created two four-book series for younger
readers. The Shredderman books feature a
boy who deals with a bully and received the Christopher Award for
“affirming the highest values of the human spirit,” and was made
into a Nickelodeon movie. The related Gecko &
Sticky books, which are full of alluring alliterations
that make for rousing read-alouds, are perfect for reluctant
readers.
A classroom teacher for fifteen years, Van Draanen resides in
California where she can be spotted riding shopping carts across
parking lots. She and her husband, Mark Parsons, have two sons and
enjoy the three R’s: Reading, Running, and Rock’n’Roll.