Andrew Clements’s Followers (2,005)

Add New
Videos

Add a comment

Add a comment

Andrew Clements

Born

in Camden, New Jersey, The United States

May 29, 1949

Died

November 29, 2019

Website

http://www.andrewclements.com/

Genre

Children's Books

edit data

I was born in Camden, New Jersey in 1949 and lived in Oaklyn and Cherry Hill until the middle of sixth grade. Then we moved to Springfield, Illinois. My parents were avid readers and they gave that love of books and reading to me and to all my brothers and sisters. I didn’t think about being a writer at all back then, but I did love to read. I'm certain there's a link between reading good books and becoming a writer. I don't know a single writer who wasn’t a reader first.
Before moving to Illinois, and even afterwards, our family spent summers at a cabin on a lake in Maine. There was no TV there, no phone, no doorbell—and email wasn’t even invented. All day there was time to swim and fish and mess around outside, and every night, there was t I was born in Camden, New Jersey in 1949 and lived in Oaklyn and Cherry Hill until the middle of sixth grade. Then we moved to Springfield, Illinois. My parents were avid readers and they gave that love of books and reading to me and to all my brothers and sisters. I didn’t think about being a writer at all back then, but I did love to read. I'm certain there's a link between reading good books and becoming a writer. I don't know a single writer who wasn’t a reader first.
Before moving to Illinois, and even afterwards, our family spent summers at a cabin on a lake in Maine. There was no TV there, no phone, no doorbell—and email wasn’t even invented. All day there was time to swim and fish and mess around outside, and every night, there was time to read. I know those quiet summers helped me begin to think like a writer.
During my senior year at Springfield High School my English teacher handed back a poem I’d written. Two things were amazing about that paper. First, I’d gotten an A—a rare event in this teacher’s class. And she’d also written in large, scrawly red writing, “Andrew—this poem is so funny. This should be published!”
That praise sent me off to Northwestern University feeling like I was a pretty good writer, and occasionally professors there also encouraged me and complimented the essays I was required to write as a literature major. But I didn’t write much on my own—just some poetry now and then. I learned to play guitar and began writing songs, but again, only when I felt like it. Writing felt like hard work—something that’s still true today.
After the songwriting came my first job in publishing. I worked for a small publisher who specialized in how-to books, the kind of books that have photos with informative captions below each one. The book in which my name first appeared in print is called A Country Christmas Treasury. I’d built a number of the projects featured in the book, and I was listed as one of the “craftspeople”on the acknowlegements page, in tiny, tiny type.
In 1990 I began trying to write a story about a boy who makes up a new word. That book eventually became my first novel, Frindle, published in 1996, and you can read the whole story of how it developed on another web site, frindle.com. Frindle became popular, more popular than any of my books before or since—at least so far. And it had the eventual effect of turning me into a full-time writer.
I’ve learned that I need time and a quiet place to think and write. These days, I spend a lot of my time sitting in a small shed about seventy feet from my back door at our home in Massachusetts. There’s a woodstove in there for the cold winters, and an air conditioner for the hot summers. There’s a desk and chair, and I carry a laptop computer back and forth. But there’s no TV, no phone, no doorbell, no email. And the woodstove and the pine board walls make the place smell just like that cabin in Maine where I spent my earliest summers.
Sometimes kids ask how I've been able to write so many books. The answer is simple: one word at a time. Which is a 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. And growing up, it's the same way. We just have to go to that next class, read that next chapter, help that next person. You simply have to do that next good thing, and before you know it, you're living a good life. ...more

Combine Editions
Andrew Clements’s books

Average rating: 3.87 · 277,093 ratings · 18,275 reviews · 172 distinct works • Similar authors

	Frindle 3.85 avg rating — 120,894 ratings — published 1996 — 95 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Things Not Seen (Things, #1) 3.89 avg rating — 26,454 ratings — published 2002 — 39 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	No Talking 3.97 avg rating — 19,586 ratings — published 2007 — 44 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Report Card 3.88 avg rating — 13,255 ratings — published 2004 — 43 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The School Story 3.98 avg rating — 12,097 ratings — published 2001 — 46 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Landry News by Andrew Clements, Brian Selznick (Illustrator), Salvatore Murdocca (Illustrator) 3.88 avg rating — 9,011 ratings — published 1999 — 48 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Extra Credit by Andrew Clements, Mark Elliott (Illustrator) 3.78 avg rating — 9,182 ratings — published 2009 — 26 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lunch Money 3.92 avg rating — 8,846 ratings — published 2005 — 34 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Week in the Woods 3.80 avg rating — 6,245 ratings — published 2002 — 30 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Janitor's Boy by Andrew Clements, Brian Selznick (Illustrator) 3.77 avg rating — 5,822 ratings — published 2000 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Andrew Clements…

Series by Andrew Clements

Things (3 books)
by

Andrew Clements

3.88 avg rating — 32,549 ratings

Benjamin Pratt & the Keepers of the School (5 books)
by

Andrew Clements,

Adam Stower (Illustrations)

3.91 avg rating — 5,891 ratings

Jake Drake (4 books)
by

Andrew Clements,

Dolores Avendaño (Illustrator)

3.74 avg rating — 2,140 ratings

Quotes by Andrew Clements (?)

“Two wrongs don't make a right, but don't three lefts make a right? Two wrongs don't make a right, but don't two negatives make a positive?”
― Andrew Clements, Things Not Seen

tags: andrew, beautiful, clements, inspirational, ironic, life, oxemoron, paradox, wisdom

273 likes

“When we read, we decide when, where, how long, and about what. One of the few places on earth that it is still possible to experience an instant sense of freedom and privacy is anywhere you open up a good book and begin to read. When we read silently, we are alone with our own thoughts and one other voice. We can take our time, consider, evaluate, and digest what we read—with no commercial interruptions, no emotional music or special effects manipulation. And in spite of the advances in electronic information exchange, the book is still the most important medium for presenting ideas of substance and value, still the only real home of literature.”
― Andrew Clements

tags: andrew, books, clements, freedom, reading, things-not-seen

137 likes

“Because a real kiss, a kiss that two real people choose to give each other - it's something that can't be filmed or
photographed or drawn, or even described with words. Because a kiss isn't what it looks like or how it feels.
A real kiss happens down deep inside of two hearts at the same time. It's hidden away. A real kiss is invisible.”
― Andrew Clements

83 likes

See all Andrew Clements's quotes »

Polls

Who is your favorite author writing fiction for children?

Judy Blume

2 votes 50.0%

J.K. Rowling

2 votes 50.0%

Andrew Clements

0 votes 0.0%

Dan Gutman

0 votes 0.0%

Margaret Peterson Haddix

0 votes 0.0%

Erin Hunter

0 votes 0.0%

Jeff Kinney

0 votes 0.0%

Kate Klise

0 votes 0.0%

Mary Pope Osborne

0 votes 0.0%

Barbara Park

0 votes 0.0%

4 total votes

comments and details

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Pick-a-Shelf: Shelf-a-thon - Official Rules	57	343	Mar 31, 2009 02:16PM
Pick-a-Shelf: Lyn's OSD Plan	3	33	Oct 23, 2009 02:19PM
The Seasonal Read...: 50.1 Midway - Senses, Emotions, Memories (pjreads)	201	272	Nov 03, 2009 02:06PM
The Next Best Boo...: Lyn - Frequent Flyer	8	105	Jan 14, 2010 01:29PM
The Seasonal Read...: BEST REVIEW CONTEST (WINTER 2009-2010)	9	227	Feb 13, 2010 09:01PM
The Seasonal Read...: WINTER CHALLENGE 2009-2010 COMPLETED TASKS	3143	3252	Feb 28, 2010 09:02PM

More…

Andrew Clements’s Followers (2,005)

Add NewVideos

Andrew Clements

Combine EditionsAndrew Clements’s books

Series by Andrew Clements

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Add New
Videos

Combine Editions
Andrew Clements’s books