Peter Lerangis | |
---|---|
Born | 1955 (age 68–69) Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
Occupation | Author |
Nationality | American |
Education | Harvard University (BA) [1] |
Notable works | Seven Wonders series, 39 clues series |
Spouse | Tina deVaron |
Website | |
peterlerangis |
Peter Duncan Lerangis [2] (born 1955, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American author of children's and young adult fiction, best known for his Seven Wonders series and his work on the 39 Clues series.
Lerangis's work includes the Seven Wonders series, all five books of which made The New York Times Best Seller list for Children's Books. He was also the author of The Viper's Nest and The Sword Thief , two titles in the New York Times-bestselling children's-book series The 39 Clues , along with the second entry in a four-novella collection, Vespers Rising . This book served as an introduction to a six-book 39 Clues sequel entitled Cahills Vs. Vespers, [3] for which he wrote the third book, The Dead of the Night . His other books include the historical novel Smiler's Bones, the YA novel Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I Am (with Harry Mazer), the YA dark comedy-adventure novel wtf, the Drama Club series, the Spy X series, the Watchers series, the Abracadabra series, and the Antarctica two-book adventure, as well ghost-writing for series such as the Three Investigators , the Hardy Boys Casefiles , Sweet Valley Twins , and more than forty books in the series The Baby-sitters Club and its various spin-offs. [4] He has also written novels based on film screenplays, including The Sixth Sense , Sleepy Hollow , and Beauty and the Beast , and five video game novelizations in the Worlds of Power series created by Seth Godin. [5] As a ghostwriter he has been published under the name A. L. Singer. [6]
Lerangis is the son of a retired New York Telephone Company employee and a retired public-elementary-school secretary, who raised him in Freeport, New York on Long Island. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in biochemistry, while acting in musicals [7] and singing with and musically directing the a cappella group the Harvard Krokodiloes. [8] [9] Peter was said to have been classmates with Bill Gates in college before he dropped out and founded the company Microsoft. Upon graduation, Peter moved to New York where he worked as an actor [10] and freelance copy editor for eight years before becoming an author. [11]
In 2003, Lerangis was chosen by First Lady Laura Bush to accompany her to the first Russian Book Festival, hosted by Russian First Lady Lyudmila Putina in Moscow. [12] [13] Authors R. L. Stine ( Goosebumps ) and Marc Brown (the Arthur the Aardvark series) also made the trip with Bush. [12]
Also in 2003, Lerangis was commissioned by the United Kingdom branch of Scholastic to write X-Isle, one of four books that would relaunch the Point Horror series there. [14] A sequel, Return to X-Isle, was published in 2004.
In 2007, Scholastic announced the launch of a new historical mystery series called The 39 Clues, intended to become a franchise. [15] Lerangis wrote the third book in the series, The Sword Thief, published in March 2009. [16] [17] [18] On March 3, 2009, Scholastic announced that Lerangis would write the seventh book in the series, The Viper's Nest. [17] [19]
In 2016, Lerangis traveled to Patan Dhoka, Nepal where he was the guest speaker at Bal Sahitya Mahotsav, the first children's literature festival in Nepal. [20]
Lerangis lives in New York City with his wife, musician Tina deVaron. He has two grown children, Nick and Joe. [21]
Published under the pseudonym Morgan Burke. [23]
Seven Wonders Journals
Goosebumps is a series of horror novels written by American author R. L. Stine. The protagonists in these stories are tweens or young teens who find themselves in frightening circumstances, often involving the supernatural, the paranormal, or the occult. Between 1992 and 1997, 62 books were published under the Goosebumps umbrella title. R. L. Stine also wrote various spin-off series, including, Goosebumps Series 2000, Give Yourself Goosebumps, Tales to Give You Goosebumps, Goosebumps Triple Header, Goosebumps HorrorLand, Goosebumps Most Wanted and Goosebumps SlappyWorld. Additionally there was a series called Goosebumps Gold that was never released.
Chasing Vermeer is a 2004 children's art mystery novel written by Blue Balliett and illustrated by Brett Helquist. Set in Hyde Park, Chicago near the University of Chicago, the novel follows two children, Calder Pillay and Petra Andalee. After a famous Johannes Vermeer painting, A Lady Writing, is stolen en route to the Art Institute of Chicago, Calder and Petra work together to try to recover it. The thief publishes many advertisements in the newspaper, explaining that he will give the painting back if the community can discover which paintings under Vermeer's name were really painted by him. This causes Petra, Calder, and the rest of Hyde Park to examine art more closely. Themes of art, chance, coincidence, deception, and problem-solving are apparent.
John David Wolverton, better known by his pen names Dave Wolverton and David Farland, was an American author, editor, and instructor of online writing workshops and groups. He wrote in several genres but was known best for his science fiction and fantasy works. Books in his Runelords series hit the New York Times bestsellers list.
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.
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Margaret Peterson Haddix is an American writer known best for the two children's series, Shadow Children (1998–2006) and The Missing (2008–2015). She also wrote the tenth volume in the multiple-author series The 39 Clues.
Cornelia Maria Funke is a German author of children's fiction. Born in Dorsten, North Rhine-Westphalia, she began her career as a social worker before becoming a book illustrator. She began writing novels in the late 1980s and focused primarily on fantasy-oriented stories that depict the lives of children faced with adversity. Funke has since become Germany's "best-selling author for children". Her work has been translated into several languages and, as of 2012, Funke has sold over 20 million copies of her books worldwide.
Ann Matthews Martin is an American children's fiction writer, known best for The Baby-Sitters Club series.
The Worlds of Power books are a series of novelizations of video games for the Nintendo Entertainment System released in the early 1990s by Scholastic. The series was created by Seth Godin and take creative liberties with their source material. They usually include game hints written upside down at the end of chapters and are written in a simplistic, easy-to-read style.
The Lightning Thief is a 2005 American fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology, the first young adult novel by Rick Riordan. The opening installment in the series Percy Jackson & the Olympians, the book was recognized among the year's best for young adults. Riordan followed the novel with various books and spin-off series, spawning the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles media franchise.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians is a series of six fantasy novels written by American author Rick Riordan. The first book series in his Camp Half-Blood Chronicles, the novels are set in a world with the Greek gods in the 21st century. The series follows the protagonist Percy Jackson, a young demigod, who must prevent the Titans, led by Kronos, from destroying the world.
Richard Russell Riordan Jr. is an American author, best known for writing the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. Riordan's books have been translated into forty-two languages and sold more than thirty million copies in the United States. 20th Century Fox adapted the first two books of his Percy Jackson series as part of a series of films in which Riordan was not involved. Riordan currently serves as a co-creator and executive producer on the television series adaption of the book series that was released on Disney+ in 2023. Riordan's books have also spawned other related media, such as graphic novels and short story collections.
The Maze of Bones is the first novel of The 39 Clues series, written by Rick Riordan and published September 9, 2008 by Scholastic. It stars Amy and Dan Cahill, two orphans who discover, upon their grandmother Grace's death, that they are part of the powerful Cahill family, whose members constantly fight each other for Clues, which are ingredients to a mysterious serum. The novel has received generally positive reviews. It is set to receive a graphic novel adaptation by Ethan Young in 2023.
The 39 Clues is a series of adventure novels written by a collaboration of authors, including Rick Riordan, Gordon Korman, Peter Lerangis, Jude Watson, Patrick Carman, Linda Sue Park, Margaret Peterson Haddix, Roland Smith, David Baldacci, Jeff Hirsch, Natalie Standiford, C. Alexander London, Sarwat Chadda and Jenny Goebel. It consists of five series, The Clue Hunt, Cahills vs. Vespers, Unstoppable, Doublecross, and Superspecial. They chronicle the adventures of two siblings, Amy and Dan Cahill, who discover that their family has been, and still is, the most influential family in history.
The Sword Thief is the third book in The 39 Clues series. It was written by Peter Lerangis and was published by Scholastic on March 3, 2009. The Sword Thief follows the first two books in the series, The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan and One False Note by Gordon Korman. The following book continues the plot in Beyond the Grave.
The Viper's Nest is the seventh book in The 39 Clues series. It was written by Peter Lerangis and was released by Scholastic on February 2, 2010. The 39 Clues series is intended for children aged 8–12, and takes the form of a multimedia adventure story spanning 10 books. The stories focus on a brother and sister, Amy and Dan Cahill, and their efforts to piece together clues left by the matriarch of the family, Grace Cahill, upon her death.
Seven Wonders is a pentalogy of children's fantasy, adventure and mythological fiction books written by American author Peter Lerangis. It is based on Greek mythology and set around the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Jack McKinley discovers a secret organization on a hidden island, and becomes the leader of a mission to retrieve seven lost magical orbs. As Jack and his three friends realize their lives are at stake, they have no choice but to accept the quest and embark on the challenge.