Ben Mikaelsen (born January 5, 1952) is a Bolivian American writer of children's literature.
Ben Mikaelsen was born on January 5, 1952, in La Paz, Bolivia, the son of missionary parents of Danish descent. [1] [2] He wasn't sent to school until fourth grade where he was bullied for his race. Mikaelsen moved to the United States with his family shortly before entering seventh grade, [1] where he encountered further bullying because of his poor English capabilities. [3] As a teen in Minnesota, he taught himself to swim and dive, and this led him to take flight and skydiving lessons. [4] Mikaelsen attended USC and Bemidji State University. [5]
When building his home in Montana, Ben adopted an American black bear named Buffy for 26 years until the bear's death in September 2012. [6] Ben Mikaelsen considered Buffy a "750-pound member of my family." [7] He has been writing full-time since 1984 and lives in Anacortes, Washington with his wife, Connie. He has written a few books inspired by his bear, such as Touching Spirit Bear and the sequel Ghost of Spirit Bear. He also took a year out of high school to join a parachute team and compete around Minnesota. He goes around the country visiting schools to teach kids about his life and his experience as a victim of bullying.[ citation needed ]
Mikaelson's work has won many state youth literature awards, including the California Young Reader Medal and Wyoming's Indian Paintbrush Book Award.
Tamora Pierce is an American writer of fantasy fiction for teenagers, known best for stories featuring young heroines. She made a name for herself with her first book series, The Song of the Lioness (1983–1988), which followed the main character Alanna through the trials and triumphs of training as a knight.
The Stonewall Book Award is a set of three literary awards that annually recognize "exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender experience" in English-language books published in the U.S. They are sponsored by the Rainbow Round Table (RRT) of the American Library Association (ALA) and have been part of the American Library Association awards program, now termed ALA Book, Print & Media Awards, since 1986 as the single Gay Book Award.
John Marsden is an Australian writer and alternative school principal. Marsden's books have been translated into eleven languages.
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Robert Edmund Cormier was an American writer and journalist, known for his deeply pessimistic novels, many of which were written for young adults. Recurring themes include abuse, mental illness, violence, revenge, betrayal, and conspiracy. In most of his novels, the protagonists do not win.
Young adult literature (YA) is typically written for readers aged 12 to 18 and includes most of the themes found in adult fiction, such as friendship, substance abuse, alcoholism, and sexuality. Stories that focus on the challenges of youth may be further categorized as social or coming-of-age novels.
Gordon Korman is a Canadian author of children's and young adult fiction books. Korman's books have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide over a career spanning four decades and have appeared at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list.
James John Patrick Murphy was an American author. He wrote more than 35 nonfiction and fiction books for children, young adults, and general audiences, including more than 30 about American history. He won the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 2010 for his contribution in writing for teens.
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Petey (1998) is a children's novel by Ben Mikaelsen, published in 1998 and set in the 1920s and 1990s.
Markus Zusak is an Australian writer. He is best known for The Book Thief and The Messenger, two novels that became international bestsellers. He won the Margaret Edwards Award in 2014.
Jacqueline Woodson is an American writer of books for children and adolescents. She is best known for Miracle's Boys, and her Newbery Honor-winning titles Brown Girl Dreaming, After Tupac and D Foster, Feathers, and Show Way. After serving as the Young People's Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017, she was named the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, by the Library of Congress, for 2018 to 2019. Her novel Another Brooklyn was shortlisted for the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction. She won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2018. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2020.
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The Margaret A. Edwards Award is an American Library Association (ALA) literary award that annually recognizes an author and "a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature". It is named after Margaret A. Edwards (1902–1988), the longtime director of young adult services at Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore.
Margaret Bechard is an American author of contemporary and science fiction for children and young adults.
Margaret Stiefvater is an American writer of young adult fiction. She is best known for her fantasy series The Wolves of Mercy Falls and The Raven Cycle.
Athletic Shorts: Six Short Stories is a young adult fiction short story collection by Chris Crutcher. Most of the stories are related to Crutcher's early work and often come from his experience as a family counselor. This book also contains the short story "A Brief Moment in the Life of Angus Bethune" which first appeared in Connections, edited by Donald R. Gallo, published in 1989 by Delacorte Press. It was adapted into the film Angus. The novel has been met with challenges from school districts due to the book's inclusion of offensive language, homosexuality, and sexual content, and was the fourth most challenged book in 2006.
Martine Leavitt is a Canadian American writer of young adult novels and a creative writing instructor.
Sy Montgomery is an American naturalist, author, and scriptwriter who writes for children as well as adults.