Edward Irving Wortis
Encyclopedia : E : ED : EDW : Edward Irving Wortis
Edward Irving Wortis (born December 23, 1937), better known by the pen name Avi, is a prominent American author of children's books and a winner of the Newbery Honor and Newbery Medal.
Biography
Avi and his twin sister Emily Wortis Ledier were born in New York City to Joseph Wortis, a psychiatrist, and Helen Zunser Wortis, a social worker. In the year after Avi's birth, his family moved to Brooklyn. When he was young his sister gave him the nickname "Avi," which he adopted as his name (he prefers not to use or reveal his given name). Two of Avi's great-grandfathers were writers, and one grandmother was a playwright. In interviews, he recalled his mother reading to him and his sister every night, and going to the public library on Fridays. Avi's brother Henry was considered a genius and went to college at age 15 (and later became a scientist).At Stuyvesant High School, Avi flunked out. After, Avi's parents transferred him to Elisabeth Irwin High School, a smaller private school. There he studied with a tutor, Ella Ratner (whom he credits for his writing success), and found that he had dysgraphia, a condition causing one to reverse or misspell words.
Avi is an extremely prolific author. He has written books for many different age groups and in many different genres. Perhaps his most famous books fall under the category of historical fiction, but he has also written fantasies, comedies, mysteries, ghost stories, adventure tales, realistic fiction, and picture books. Avi has won many prestigious awards for his books, including a Newbery Honor for The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle in 1991 and another for Nothing But the Truth in 1992. His fiftieth book, , was awarded the Newbery Medal in 2003. As of the end of 2005, Avi has published 57 books, all written for children/young adults. After living in Providence, Rhode Island, in the 1980s and 1990s, Avi now resides in Denver, Colorado.
Bibliography
- Wolf Rider
- The Secret School
- Nothing But the Truth
- Midnight Magic
- Emily Upham's Revenge
- The Barn
- History of Helpless Harry
- Punch With Judy
- Who Was that Masked Man, Anyway?
- The Man Who Was Poe
- Beyond the Western Sea
- Don't You Know There's a War On
- Captain Grey
- The Fighting Ground
- Night Journeys
- Smuggler's Island
- Encounter At Easton
- The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
- Finding Providence
- Romeo & Juliet, Together and Alive at Last
- S.O.R. Losers
- Bright Shadow
- The Christmas Rat
- City of Light/City of Dark
- Perloo the Bold
- Tom, Babbette & Simon
- Something Upstairs
- The Book Without Words
- Poppy
- Ereth's birthday
- Ragweed
- Poppy and Rye
- Never Mind
- Beyond The Western Sea
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.