Wendelin Van Draanen Dutch name, see (born January 6, 1965) is an American writer of children's and young-adult fiction.

Biography

Van Draanen was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. One of her very early influences was ''

Dandelion Wine ''Dandelion Wine'' is a 1957 novel by Ray Bradbury set in the summer of 1928 in the fictional town of Green Town, Illinois, based upon Bradbury's childhood home of Waukegan, Illinois. The novel developed from the short story "Dandelion Wine", wh ...

'' by

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and r ...

. According to the author, the book was "about the magic of growing up and treminded me of all the wonderful mischief my brothers and I got into when we were young". Bradbury's work inspired Van Draanen to write ''How I Survived Being a Girl'', which was published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

in 1997.Newman, Patricia (May 2002)
"Who Wrote That? Featuring Wendelin Van Draanen"
''California Kids!''. Valley Community Newspapers (

Sacramento, CA ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

). Reissued by the writer (patricianewman.com). Retrieved 2011-05-11. Other early influences include

Nancy Drew Nancy Drew is a Fictional character, fictional character appearing in several Mystery fiction, mystery book series, movies, and a TV show as a teenage amateur sleuth. The books are ghostwriter, ghostwritten by a number of authors and published ...

The Hardy Boys The Hardy Boys, brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional characters who appear in several mystery series for children and teens. The series revolves around teenagers who are amateur sleuths, solving cases that stumped their adult counterp ...

, and ''

Encyclopedia Brown ''Encyclopedia Brown'' is a series of books featuring the adventures of boy detective Leroy Brown, nicknamed "Encyclopedia" for his intelligence and range of knowledge. The series of 29 children's novels was written (one co-written) by Donald ...

''. In college, the Van Draanen family business was burned down, leading to financial hardship. Wendelin turned to writing to alleviate stress and she published her first book in 1997, titled ''How I Survived Being a Girl''. Van Draanen is the daughter of two chemists who immigrated from the Netherlands. Before she became a full-time writer she was a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

math teacher and computer science teacher. Van Draanen lives in

San Luis Obispo, California San Luis Obispo (; Spanish for " St. Louis the Bishop", ; Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, in the U.S. state of California. Located on the Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfwa ...

with her husband Mark Parsons and two sons, Colton and Connor.

Selected works

''Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief'', which inaugurated the Sammy Keyes series in 1998, won the

Edgar Allan Poe Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

for Best Juvenile Mystery from the

Mystery Writers of America Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is an organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday. It presents the Edgar Award ...

in 1999. The eighteen-book series follows the adventures of a disenfranchised teen as she navigates middle school and life. ''Runaway'', a companion book to the ''

Sammy Keyes Sammy Keyes is a series of mystery novels written by Wendelin Van Draanen for children aged 10–16. The series focuses on Sammy's adventures as an amateur sleuth. The books, which are narrated in the first-person perspective by Sammy, involve d ...

'' series, is about a girl named Holly who tries to escape from her latest foster home. From 2004 to 2006 Van Draanen wrote ''Shredderman'', a four-book series for younger readers about a

fifth grade Fifth grade (called Grade 5 in some regions) is a year of education in many nations, and some other regions call it Year 5. In the United States, the fifth grade is the fifth and last year of elementary school in most schools. In other schools, it ...

boy who assumes a secret online identity to help him win a battle against the school bully Bubba Bixby. She also wrote the standalone teen romance '' Flipped'' in a he-said she-said style, with the two protagonists alternately presenting their perspective on a shared set of events. The two protagonists Bryce and Julianna are neighbors. The book was made into a Warner Brothers feature film directed by Rob Reiner in 2010.

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...

participating libraries report works by and about Wendelin Van Draanen that encompass roughly 70+ works in 370+ publications in 12 languages and 51,000+ library holdings.

Shredderman series

*''Shredderman 1: Secret Identity'' (2004) *''Shredderman 2: Attack of the Tagger'' (2005) *''Shredderman 3: Meet the Gecko'' (2005) *''Shredderman 4: Enemy Spy'' (2006)

Sammy Keyes series

The

series has been published by Knopf

imprint Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

s of Random House, with 18 books in total. *''Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief'' (Aug 1998) – 1999

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

, Best Juvenile Mystery"Edgar Awards throughout time"
or "Search the Edgar Award Winners and Nominees" (Edgars Database search form).

(The Edgars.com). Retrieved 2011-05-11. *''Sammy Keyes and the Skeleton Man'' (Apr 1998) *''Sammy Keyes and the Sisters of Mercy'' (Oct 1999) *''Sammy Keyes and the Runaway Elf'' (May 2000) *''Sammy Keyes and the Curse of Moustache Mary'' (Feb 2001) – Edgar nominee, Best Juvenile *''Sammy Keyes and the Hollywood Mummy'' (May 2002) *''Sammy Keyes and the Search for Snake Eyes'' (Apr 2003) – Edgar nominee, Best Juvenile *''Sammy Keyes and the Art of Deception'' (2003) – Edgar nominee, Best Juvenile *''Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen'' (Apr 2006) *''Sammy Keyes and the Dead Giveaway'' (2005) *''Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things'' (May 2007) – Edgar nominee, Best Juvenile *''Sammy Keyes and the Cold Hard Cash'' (Oct 2008) *''Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher'' (Oct 2010) *''Sammy Keyes and the Night of Skulls'' (Oct 2011) *''Sammy Keyes and the Power of Justice Jack'' (Jul 2012) *''Sammy Keyes and the Showdown in Sin City'' (Jan 2013) *''Sammy Keyes and the Killer Cruise'' (Sep 2013) *''Sammy Keyes and the Kiss Goodbye'' (Sep 2014)

The Gecko & Sticky series

*''The Gecko & Sticky: Villain's Lair'' (Feb 10, 2009) *''The Gecko & Sticky: The Greatest Power'' (May 26, 2009) *''The Gecko & Sticky: Sinister Substitute'' (Jan 12, 2010) *''The Gecko & Sticky: The Power Potion'' (Jun 08, 2010)

Non-series

* ''How I Survived Being a Girl'' (1997) * '' Flipped'' (2001) –

adapted In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the po ...

as the 2010 feature film ''Flipped'' * ''Swear to Howdy'' (2003) * ''Runaway'' (2006), based on a character introduced in the Sammy Keyes series – Lone Star Book List, 2007–08 * ''Confessions of a Serial Kisser'' (2008) * ''The Running Dream'' (2011) – Lone Star Book List, 2011"Lone Star Reading List"
Texas Library Association (txla.org). Retrieved 2014-04-20. With "Master List" (

MS Excel Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It features calculation or computation capabilities, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Appl ...

) for download, comprising annual lists of 20 books from 1990–91 to present;

Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award The Vermont Golden Dome Book Award (formerly the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award) annually recognizes one new American children's book selected by the vote of Vermont schoolchildren. It was inaugurated in 1957. The award is co-spon ...

, 2013 * ''The Secret Life of Lincoln Jones'' (2016) * ''Wild Bird'' (2017) * ''The Peach Rebellion'' (2022)

References

*"Spring Attractions: Children's Authors Talk about New Projects and What's on the Horizon". (April 1, 2002). ''Publishers Weekly'', pp. 24–26

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Draanen, Wendelin 1965 births Living people American children's writers Edgar Award winners Writers from Chicago American young adult novelists American women novelists 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers American women children's writers Women writers of young adult literature American people of Dutch descent People from San Luis Obispo, California Novelists from California Novelists from Illinois