'Every story is a beginning'

 

“When you are in your teenage years you are consciously experiencing everything for the first time, so adolescent stories are all beginnings. There are never any endings.” – Aidan Chambers

 

Born in England in December of 1934, Chambers won both the British Carnegie Medal and the American Printz Award for Postcards from No Man's Land.   The author of many bestselling children's and Young-Adult novels, he also was named for the Hans Christian Andersen Award for his contributions to children’s literature.

 

After starting his adult life as a teacher, Chambers spent several years at an Anglican Monastery before leaving to pursue freelance writing.  His Young Adult novel Now I Know -  part of an award-winning 6-book series called The Dance Sequence - is based partly on his experiences as a monk. 

 

Chambers and his wife Nancy founded Thimble Press and the magazine Signal to promote literature for children and young adults, and the publishing house's many successes earned them the Eleanor Farjeon Award for outstanding services to children's books. Chambers died earlier this year - at age 90 - and said he never wrote down to his young readers

  

“At age 15, people can handle the same language as me," he said.  "They're just as complicated as me and are very interested in thinking about important questions for the first time.”