Biography
Early life
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, John Richard Coy was the oldest of four children. His parents were both educators: Coy's father taught college history and his mother taught high school English. Graduating from Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, he later received his master of arts degree in children and creativity from St. Mary's University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Coy worked at a variety of jobs—dishwasher, tour guide, mattress maker—before deciding on a career as a writer.
Career
His first picture book, Night Driving, was inspired by cross-country driving trips on which his father took his family of six when the author was young. John, the oldest, usually sat in front with his father, talking during the wee hours of the night, learning more about his dad than he did when the family was at home.
John's book Strong to the Hoop involved him in the National Basketball Association's Read to Achieve program. Strong to the Hoop was translated into Spanish as Directo al Aro four years later. The publisher asked that John write a book about basketball as it is played in countries all over the world. That book became Around the World.
Working with boys during school visits, talking to them, hearing the reasons they do and do not read, John has written books he would have liked reading as a teen. Crackback is set within the realities of high school football and Box Out perceptively follows a sophomore as he is called up to play varsity basketball. His third young adult novel Gap Life is about Cray Franklin, a boy whose parents will pay for college, but only if he studies what they want, which is not what he wants.
John's popular 4 for 4 series offers readers four novels about four friends engaged in sports, making the transition from elementary school to middle school. Middle grade readers will enjoy: Top of the Order, which is all about baseball; Eyes on the Goal, which tells an exciting soccer story; Love of the Game, in which the four friends hope to make the football team; Take Your Best Shot, a hoops story that concludes the series.
Strong to the Hoop, Night Driving, and Vroomaloom Zoom have been produced as children's theater throughout the United States.
John has worked as a librettist with the Minnesota Orchestra, an editor for the Youth Computer Center at the Science Museum of Minnesota, and a tour guide for the Minnesota Historical Society. He has also worked extensively with developmentally disabled adults and children.
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