Walter Dean Myers published his first book in 1969, a picture book called "Where Does The Day Go?" Since then, he has published more than 80 books, including novels, biographies, poetry, fables, and adventure stories. One of today's most renowned young adult authors, Myers has won many awards for his work. This insightful, new full-color biography shows how Myers draws on his own experiences to write realistic young adult novels about African-American teenagers living in urban environments, such as "Monster", "Scorpions, and "Autobiography of My Dead Brother".
Growing up poor in the barrios of Fresno, California, Gary Soto found it nearly impossible to imagine a better life for himself. Yet this child of farm workers was able to escape his life of poverty and despair to become a popular and versatile author. His work, ranging from poetry, fiction, and autobiographical essays for adults to novels, short stories, poetry, and picture books for young readers, explores what it is like to grow up as a Mexican American in the United States. "Gary Soto" is the inspirational biography...
A biography of an author whose varied experiences provided background for many of his adventure stories, historical novels, sports books, and nature stories.
Gary Paulsen has used his adventurous life to enrich his writing for young children. Experiences such as living in the Philippines after World War II, joining a traveling carnival, and racing in the Iditarod have found their way into his novels. Paulsen is a passionate writer, and his book Hatchet won the Newbery Award.
D.H. Lawrence remains one of the most popular and studied authors of the 20th century. This book is a comprehensive but easy to use reference guide to Lawrence's life, works, and critical reception. The volume has been systematically structured to convey a coherent overall sense of Lawrence's achievement and critical reputation, but it is also designed to enable the reader who may be interested in only one aspect of Lawrence's career, perhaps even in only one of his novels or stories, to find relevant information quickly and easily without having to read other parts of the text.
Over an extraordinary twenty-year career, Jane Smiley has written all kinds of novels: mystery, comedy, historical fiction, epic. “Is there anything Jane Smiley cannot do?” raves Time magazine. But in the wake of 9/11, Smiley faltered in her hitherto unflagging impulse to write and decided to approach novels from a different angle: she read one hundred of them, from classics such as the thousand-year-old Tale of Genji to recent fiction by Zadie Smith, Nicholson Baker, and Alice Munro.
