Wendy Mass (born April 22, 1967) is an author of

young adult novels Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...

and

children's books A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younge ...

. Her 2003 novel, '' A Mango-Shaped Space'' won the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...

(ALA) Schneider Family Book Award for Middle School in 2004. Her other notable works include: ''

11 Birthdays ''11 Birthdays'' is a children's time loop novel written by Wendy Mass and published in 2009 by Scholastic Press. It is the first novel in the ''Willow Falls'' series. The novel follows the life of a young girl named Amanda Ellerby who has spe ...

'', '' A Mango-Shaped Space'' and '' Every Soul a Star''. Mass's novel '' Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life'' was adapted into a feature film in 2011.

Early life

Born in

Livingston, New Jersey Livingston is a township in Essex County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the township's population was 29,366, reflecting an increase of 1,975 (+7.2%) from the 27,391 counted in the 2000 Census. In 2019, the Population Estimates Prog ...

, Mass's favorite subjects in school were

reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

and science. Wendy worked at town libraries and bookstores. As a child she would compete with friends to see who could read the most books; this helped develop her writing skills. Her first career vision was to be an astronaut. Mass's first story, co-written by her two siblings, starred a cat that somehow turned into a goat and destroyed her neighborhood. In high school, Mass worked at a local bookstore and continued to hone her writing skills. She took writing classes and decided on writing for her career.

College

As an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

major at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

, Mass continued to develop her writing skills. Mass mainly wrote short stories throughout college, and after graduation she moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, where she tried her hand at a multitude of writing businesses, including assisting a literary agent, and at a

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

casting company, editor of a magazine, and a script reader for a film producer. Mass realized she wanted to inspire

pre-teens Preadolescence is a stage of human development following middle childhood and preceding adolescence.New Oxford American Dictionary. 2nd Edition. 2005. Oxford University Press. It commonly ends with the beginning of puberty. Preadolescence is c ...

teens Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological Human development (biology), development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is ...

, and adults by writing

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physi ...

s for children, teens, and adults. She moved back to her

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

hometown and while writing, worked as a

book editor The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

, operating out of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

. She has a master's degree in creative writing from California State University, Long Beach and a Doctor of Letters degree from

Drew University Drew University is a private university in Madison, New Jersey. Drew has been nicknamed the "University in the Forest" because of its wooded campus. As of fall 2020, more than 2,200 students were pursuing degrees at the university's three sch ...

Honors and awards

Mass has published 29 novels for children and teens. She won the

(ALA) Schneider Family Book Award for her children's book '' A Mango-Shaped Space'' in 2004. She won the American Library Association Award (best books for the teenage selection), New York Public, and New York Public Library Best Books for the teenage designation, Great Lakes Book Award and Michigan State award, and has since won 11 state book awards.

Personal life

Mass and her family currently resides in New Jersey with their dog and two cats. Her family includes her husband and twins.

Works

Non-fiction

* ''Stonehenge'' (1998) * ''Teen Drug Abuse ''(1997) * ''Women's Rights'' (1998) * ''Readings on Night'' (2000) * ''Great Authors of Children's Literature'' (2001) * ''Discovering Mythology - Gods and Goddesses (2002)'' *''Ray Bradbury: Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy'' (2004) *''John Cabot: Early Explorer'' (2004) * ''Celebrate Halloween'' (2009)

Fiction

* ''Getting a Clue'' (1996) * ''The Bad Hair Day'' (1996 children's picture book) *''Noah and the Ark'' (1997) * '' A Mango-Shaped Space (2003)'' * ''Rapunzel: The One with All the Hair'' (2006) * ''Sleeping Beauty: The One Who Took The Really Long Nap'' (2006) * '' Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life'' (2006) * ''Leap Day'' (2006) * ''Heaven Looks A Lot Like The Mall'' (2007) * '' Every Soul a Star'' (2008) *''

'' (2009) * ''Finally'' (2010) * ''The Candymakers'' (2010) * ''13 Gifts'' (2011) * ''Beauty and the Beast: The Only One Who Didn't Run Away'' (2012) * ''Pi in The Sky'' (2013) * ''The Last Present (2013) *''Space Taxi: Archie Takes Flight'' (2014) *''Space Taxi: Water Planet Rescue'' (2014) * ''Graceful'' (2015) *''Space Taxi: Archie's Alien Disguise'' (2015) *''Space Taxi: The Galactic B.U.R.P.'' (2015) * ''The Candymakers and the Great Chocolate Chase'' (2016) *''The Seventh Element'' (2016) * " Robin Hood: The One who Looked Good in Green" (2018) *''Bob'' (2018)

TV scripts

* ''

Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater The second season of ''Monk (TV series), Monk'' originally aired in the United States on USA Network from June 20, 2003, to March 5, 2004. It consisted of 16 episodes. Tony Shalhoub, Bitty Schram, Ted Levine, and Jason Gray-Stanford reprised their ...

'' (2003) (with Stu Levine and

Tom Scharpling Thomas John Giuliano II (born February 9, 1969), known professionally as Tom Scharpling, is an American comedian, television writer, producer, music video director, voice actor, and radio host. He is best known for hosting the weekly Internet r ...

)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mass, Wendy 1967 births 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers American children's writers American young adult novelists Living people People from Livingston, New Jersey People from Sparta, New Jersey Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences alumni