Gary Schmidt Author Study

Introduction:
          My childhood consisted of two hobbies: soccer and reading. For the amount of time I spent out on the soccer field because of the level of involvement my family had invested in soccer, there was enough time for me to be able to read and enjoy a good story. In all this time that I got to read, there were many authors I had encountered. Therefore, I chose an author that I didn’t know so I can expand my horizons and reach a whole new world.
          Gary D. Schmidt has a brought together a collection of books that intrigues imagination yet also wrote books that students will be able to relate to. Some of his stories are set in a school with students who need to face the challenges of everyday life. Other stories he wrote inputs imagination to learn a valuable lesson. All together, he has written stories that will make students think critically about their own life and learn how to adjust to situations before they arise.
Background Info:
          Gary D. Schmidt was born in 1957 Hicksville, New York. He was raised Baptist but went to a primarily Catholic and Jewish school. He received his undergraduate degree in English from Gordon College in 1979. He earned his MA in English at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1981 and his PhD was in medieval literature in 1985. It was the same year as he earned his PhD that he joined the Calvin College Faculty in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His academic interests/specialization are children and adult’s literature, New England cultural history, old and middle English language and literature, creative writing, writing for children and young adults, and Katherine Paterson.

Gary D. Schmidt now lives with his wife and six children on a 150-year-old farm in Alto, Michigan. On this farm he helps with splitting wood, planting vegetable gardens, writing, and feeding wild cats that drop by. He also collects first editions of the Concord authors. Some of his favorite books are the following: The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi, The Aubrey series by Patrick O’Brian, Bleak House by Charles Dickens, Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli, and Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson.

Gary D. Schmidt has written some books that have received honors from the American Library Association. For his book Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, he received both a Newberry Honor and Printz Honor in 2005. For his book The Wednesday Wars, he received a Newberry Honor in 2008.