Jerry Spinelli
Jerry Spinelli is an accomplished American author known for his contributions to children's literature. Born on February 1, 1941, in Norristown, Pennsylvania, he developed a passion for writing during his high school years. Spinelli's literary career took off with the publication of his first successful novel, *Space Station Seventh Grade*, in 1982, after several unpublished attempts. He is perhaps best known for his Newbery Award-winning book, *Maniac Magee*, published in 1990, which also inspired a television movie. Throughout his career, Spinelli has authored over twenty books, drawing inspiration from his childhood and his experiences as a father. His notable works include *Wringer*, *Milkweed*, *Loser*, and *Stargirl*, the latter of which was adapted into a Disney film. In addition to his writing, Spinelli has received numerous awards for his contributions to literature, including the Golden Kite Award and the Carolyn Field Award. His recent works continue to explore themes relevant to young audiences, such as anxiety and coming-of-age experiences.
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Jerry Spinelli
Biography
Jerry Spinelli was born on February 1, 1941, in Norristown, Pennsylvania. His parents were Louis Anthony Spinelli and Lorna Mae Bigler, and he had a younger brother named Bill. The family remained in Norristown throughout Spinelli’s childhood. As a child, his favorite book was Babar the Elephant. He attended Stewart Junior High and Eisenhower High School in the area, and decided he wanted to be a writer when he was a junior in high school, after abandoning the prospect of becoming a cowboy or a baseball player.
Spinelli was active in sports in high school, and when he was sixteen, a poem he wrote about a high-school football victory was published in the local paper. At that time, Spinelli decided to write professionally for a living. He received a bachelor of arts from Gettysburg College in 1963, where he was the editor of the literary magazine. He continued his education as a graduate student at Temple University, and went on to receive a master’s degree in creative writing from Johns Hopkins in 1964. Spinelli also served in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1966 to 1972. He married Eileen Mesi on May 21, 1977, and helped raise the six children she brought to the marriage.
From 1966 to 1989, Spinelli worked for Chilton Company, a magazine publisher, where he wrote copy and edited trade magazines. His first four novels went unpublished, but the fifth, Space Station Seventh Grade, finally broke through and saw print in 1982. After that, he wrote more than twenty published books for children, as well as 1998’s Knots in My Yo-Yo String, an autobiography of his life as a child. Much of his inspiration came from his children and his memories of his childhood.
Spinelli was best known for his 1991 Newbery Award-winning book, Maniac Magee. In addition, Maniac Magee also won a Boston Globe Horn Book Award in 1990 and the D. C. Fisher Award in 1992. The book was made into a television movie and shown on the Nickelodeon channel in 2003. His novel Wringer was a Newbery Honor book in 1998. Spinelli won a 2003 Golden Kite Award and a 2003 Carolyn Field Award for Milkweed, published that same year. In 2004, Spinelli won a Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award for Loser, and a Charlotte Award for Stargirl.
From 2007 to 2015, Spinelli continued his success and published eight books. In 2017, he published The Warden's Daughter, which is the coming-of-age story of a girl who lives with her widowed father on the grounds of a prison. In addition to these publishing activities, his book Wringer (1997) was adapted into a musical and performed by New York City Children's Theater in 2016. He followed this up with the 2019 picture book My Fourth of July, about a little boy's experiences with a small-town Independence Day celebration.
Disney turned Spinelli's bestseller Stargirl into a movie for its streaming platform in 2020, two decades after the book which inspired it; a sequel entitled Stargirl Hollywood was planned. In 2021, he published the middle grade novel Dead Wednesday, which follows the experiences of eighth-grader Worm Tarnauer as he completes a school assignment to pretend he's a teenager who died from a preventable cause the year before and encounters the dead teen's spirit. This was followed by Phoebe Unfired, a young adult title about a teen suffering almost crippling anxiety about infecting her younger brother in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bibliography
Dean-Ruzicka, Rachel, "Representing 'The Great Devouring:' Romani Characters in Young Adult Holocaust Literature." Children's Literature in Education, Sept. 2014, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 211–24, Literary Reference Center Plus, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lkh&AN=97178122&site=lrc-plus. Accessed 30 Nov. 2017. ((((Can't access to confirm--JU))))))
Jahn, Amalie. "Phoebe Unfired." Kirkus Reviews, 15 June 2021, www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/amalie-jahn/phoebe-unfired/. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.
Lawson, Richard. "Stargirl Is a Case Study in Quirk." Vanity Fair, 13 Mar. 2020, www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/03/stargirl-disney-plus-review. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.
Lodge, Sally. "Q & A with Jerry Spinelli." Publishers Weekly, 3 Aug. 2021, www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/87040-q-a-with-jerry-spinelli.html. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.
Lopez-Ropero, Lourdes. "You Are a Flaw in the Pattern: Difference, Autonomy and Bullying in YA Fiction." Children's Literature in Education, June 2012. vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 145–57, Literary Reference Center Plus, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lkh&AN=75528132&site=lrc-plus. Accessed 30 Nov. 2017. ((((Can't access to confirm--JU))))))
Sloan, Holly Goldberg. "The Warden's Daughter: A Girl Grows Up in the Prison Her Father Runs." Review of The Warden's Daughter, by Jerry Spinelli, 10 Feb. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/books/review/wardens-daughter-jerry-spinelli.html. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.
Spinelli, Jerry. Jerry Spinelli. jerryspinelliauthor.com/. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.