Born on January 6th, Wendelin van Draanen is a California girl who grew up to be a computer science instructor at the local high school, manage the school newspaper and yearbook, sing part-time in a rock band, and be the mother of two sons. She was also a writer, a writer who worked very hard at writing. After ten years of rejection slips, she sold her first book, How I Survived Being a Girl in 1997 (HarperCollins). In 1998, she published the first of her mysteries starring Sammy Keyes, Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief, which won the 1999 Edgar Award for Best Children's Mystery and is a 2003 nominee for that same award for Sammy Keyes and the Search for Snake Eyes. A mystery reader, she enjoyed the puzzle-solving aspects of writing computer programs, but writing mysteries has its own challenges and rewards. Although she started writing for adults, she finds great pleasure in writing for children. "One girl came up to me and told me I changed her life. It doesn't get any better than that." Other new titles from Ms. van Draanen are Flipped, Swear to Howdy, and Shredderman: Secret Identity.
