Peter Lerangis

# Bio

Peter Lerangis is the author of more than 170 books, which have sold more than 6 million copies and been translated into 34 different languages. These include nine *New York Times* Bestsellers: all five books of *The Seven Wonders* series (*The Colossus Rises*, *Lost in Babylon*, *The Tomb of Shadows*, *The Curse of the King*, and *The Legend of the Rift*); all of his contributions in the *The 39 Clues* series (*The Sword Thief*; *The Viper’s Nest*; and *Vespers Rising* , which was co-authored with Rick Riordan, Gordon Korman, and Jude Watson); and *The Dead of Night*, Book 3 in *The 39 Clues: Cahills Vs. Vespers* series.  His novel *Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I Am*, a collaboration with Harry Mazer, won the 2013 Schneider Award, presented by the American Library Association “for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for adolescent audiences,” and it was selected for the 2013 Best Fiction for Young Adults list.  *The Sword Thief* was Amazon.com’s #5 best-selling children’s book in 2009. In a five-city U.S. book tour in spring 2009, Peter videoblogged his own search for one of the Clues. He is also author of the hilarious, edgy YA novel *wtf*, and the *Drama Club* series, about a group of high school theater kids in a town where theater is big-budget and life-changing. His novel *Smiler’s Bones*, based on the true story of a Polar Eskimo boy orphaned in New York City at the turn of the 20th century, was selected as a N.Y. Public Library Best Books for Teens 2006, a Bank Street Best Books of 2006, and a Junior Library Guild pick.  Peter was one of three authors, along with R. L. Stine and Marc Brown, invited by the White House to represent the U. S. in the first Russian Book Festival in 2003. Among his most popular titles are the *Spy X* and *Watchers* series, the two-book *Antarctica* adventure, a series of humorous chapter books (*Abracadabra*), two young-adult thrillers (*The Yearbook* and *Driver’s Dead*), four middle-grade novels (*Spring Fever*, *Spring Break*, *It Came from the Cafeteria*, and *Attack of the Killer Potatoes*, and many movie novelizations (*The Sixth Sense*, *Sleepy Hollow*). He is a Harvard graduate with a degree in biochemistry. After college he became a Broadway musical theater actor. He has run a marathon and gone rock-climbing during an earthquake, but not on the same day. He lives in New York City with his wife, musician Tina deVaron, and their two sons, Nick and Joe. Peter has conducted workshops and given presentations for the National Book Foundation, PEN, the International Literacy Association, BookExpo, the Southampton Writers Conference, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Singapore Writers Festival, the Sharjah International Book Fair (United Arab Emirates), the Texas Book Festival, the Texas Library Association, the Southern California Booksellers Independent Booksellers Association, the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association, the Miami Book Fair, the Tucson Book Festival, the Decatur Book Festival, and the Highlights Foundation. Over the years he has visited schools all over the world and become known for his humorous, informative presentations. In his spare time, he likes to eat chocolate. Lots of it. Seriously, *he loves chocolate*.