Peter Lerangis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peter Lerangis (born 1955 in Brooklyn, New York) is an author of children's and young-adult fiction.

[edit] Career

Lerangis's work includes the historical novel Smiler's Bones, the Drama Club series, the Spy X series, the Watchers series, the Abracadabra series, and the Antarctica two-book adventure, as well ghostwriting 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. He has also written novels based on film screenplays, including The Sixth Sense, Sleepy Hollow, and Beauty and the Beast.

As a ghostwriter he has been published under the name A. L. Singer.

Lerangis grew up in Freeport on Long Island. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in biochemistry, while acting in musicals [1] and singing with and musically directing the a cappella group the Harvard Krokodiloes [2] [3], before moving to New York. He worked there as an actor [4] and freelance copy editor for eight years before becoming an author.[5]

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.[6] [7]Authors R. L. Stine (Goosebumps) and Marc Brown (the Arthur the Aardvark series) also made the trip with Bush.[6]

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.[8] 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.[9] Lerangis will be writing the third book in the series, to be published in 2008. The first, second and fourth books will be written by Rick Riordan, Gordon Korman and Jude Watson.[9]

Lerangis lives in New York City with his wife, musician Tina deVaron, and their sons Nick and Joe.[10]

[edit] Awards

Last Stop, the first book in Lerangis's science fiction/mystery series Watchers, was selected by the American Library Association as a 1999 Best Book for Reluctant Readers.[5]

War, the fourth book in the series Watchers, was selected by the International Reading Association and the Children's Book Council as a 2000 Children's Choice book. [11]

Lerangis's 2006 historical novel Smiler's Bones was a Junior Library Guild pick and was named among the New York Public Library Best Books for Teens 2006 [12] and the Bank Street Best Books of 2006.[10]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Klein, Julia M.. "Divine Decadence and Dollars" The Harvard Crimson, 1976-05-13.
  2. ^ Rapkin, Mickey. "Perfect Tone, in a Key That’s Mostly Minor." The New York Times, 2008-03-23, Sunday Styles section, p. 1.
  3. ^ Notable Alumni of the Harvard Krokodiloes
  4. ^ Colt, George Howe. "The Uncertain Joys of A Young Actor's Life." The New York Times, 1980-12-21, Arts and Leisure section, p. 1.
  5. ^ a b Peter Lerangis at Scholastic.com. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
  6. ^ a b Loven, Jennifer. "Laura Bush hopes to counter resentment of U.S. on trip to France, Russia." St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 2003-09-27, p. 5.
  7. ^ Website of First Lady Laura Bush.
  8. ^ "New life for teen horror stories." The Bookseller, 2003-07-18, p. 28.
  9. ^ a b Rich, Motoko. "Scholastic plans to put its branding iron on a successor to Harry Potter." The New York Times, 2007-12-18, p. E1.
  10. ^ a b Peter Lerangis at SFBookcase.com. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
  11. ^ 2000 Children's Choice Books. Retrieved on 2008-02-03.
  12. ^ 2006 New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age. Retrieved on 2008-02-03.