'One word at a time'

 

“I think the reason I'm a writer is because first, I was a reader. I loved to read. I read a lot of adventure stories and mystery books, and I have wonderful memories of my mom reading picture books aloud to me. I learned that words are powerful.” – Andrew Clements

 

Born in Camden, NJ on this date in 1949, Clements has authored more than 70 books for young people, winning some two dozen major writing awards in the process.

  

His writing was jump started in his senior year at Springfield, IL, High School when his English teacher handed back a poem he’d written and he said two things were amazing about it.  First, he’d gotten an A—a rare event in this teacher’s class; and second, she’d written in large red letters, “Andrew—this poem is so funny. This should be published!”

 

As many writers say, a teacher often shapes their writing lives.   After college, Clements taught writing to all levels from elementary through high school and started his own writing career, including working for several publishing houses.

                                                                                            
In 1985 he started writing picture books for kids and then in 1996 wrote his first novel, Frindle, winner of the Christopher Award for “writing that affirms the highest values of the human spirit.”   Since then he’s written a blend of picture books, novels for teens and tweens, and several nonfiction books, also for kids.

 

“Sometimes kids ask how I've been able to write so many books,” he said.   “The answer is simple: one word at a time. Which is another good lesson, I think. You don't have to do everything at once. You don't have to know how every story is going to end. You just have to take that next step, look for that next idea, write that next word.”