Peter Lerangis

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

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 [http://www.thecrimson.harvard.edu/printerfriendly.aspx?ref=109502 Klein, Julia M.. "Divine Decadence and Dollars" "The Harvard Crimson", 1976-05-13.] ] and singing with and musically directing the "a cappella" group the Harvard Krokodiloes [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/fashion/23acappella.html?_r=1&ref=style&pagewanted=all Rapkin, Mickey. "Perfect Tone, in a Key That’s Mostly Minor." "The New York Times", 2008-03-23, Sunday Styles section, p. 1.] ] [http://www.kroks.com/alumni Notable Alumni of the Harvard Krokodiloes] ] , before moving to New York. He worked there as an actor [http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F20F1EFB3F5E12728DDDA80A94DA415B8084F1D3 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.] ] and freelance copy editor for eight years before becoming an author. [http://content.scholastic.com/browse/contributor.jsp?id=1608 Peter Lerangis at Scholastic.com] . Retrieved on 2007-12-18.]

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.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.] [http://www.whitehouse.gov/firstlady/initiatives/russianbookfestival.html Website of First Lady Laura Bush.] ] Authors R. L. Stine ("Goosebumps") and Marc Brown (the "Arthur the Aardvark" series) also made the trip with Bush.

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."New life for teen horror stories." The Bookseller, 2003-07-18, p. 28.] 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. [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/books/18scho.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&pag=&pagewanted=print Rich, Motoko. "Scholastic plans to put its branding iron on a successor to Harry Potter." "The New York Times", 2007-12-18, p. E1.] ] Lerangis will be writing the third book in the series, to be published in 2009 and entitled "The Sword Thief" [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/dp/0545060435/peterlerangishom/ Amazon.com page confirming book title of third "39 Clues" book.] ] . The first, second, fourth, and fifth books will be written by Rick Riordan, Gordon Korman Jude Watson, and Patrick Carman. [http://www.scholastic.com/internationalrights/pdfs/39cluesFAQ.pdf Scholastic Inc. FAQ sheet regarding "The 39 Clues".] ]

Lerangis lives in New York City with his wife, musician Tina deVaron, and their sons Nick and Joe. [http://www.sfbookcase.com/author.asp?forename=Peter&surname=Lerangis Peter Lerangis at SFBookcase.com] . Retrieved on 2007-12-18.]

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.

"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. [http://www.reading.org/downloads/choices/cc2000.pdf 2000 Children's Choice Books] . Retrieved on 2008-02-03.]

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 [http://teenlink.nypl.org/booksfortheteenage06.pdf 2006 New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age] . Retrieved on 2008-02-03.] and the Bank Street Best Books of 2006.

References