Alan Gratz (1972-) is the bestselling author of nineteen novels and graphic novels for young readers. His 2017 novel Refugee has spent more than four years on the New York Times bestseller list and is the winner of 14 state awards. Its other accolades include the Sydney Taylor Book Award, the National Jewish Book Award, the Cybils Middle Grade Fiction Award, a Charlotte Huck Award Honor, and a Malka Penn Award for Human Rights Honor. Refugee was also a Global Read Aloud Book for 2018.
Life[]
Alan was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, home of the 1982 World’s Fair. After a carefree but humid childhood, Alan attended the University of Tennessee, where he earned a college Scholars degree with a specialization in creative writing, and, later, a master’s degree in English education. A member of the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame, Alan now lives with his wife Wendi and his daughter Jo in Asheville, North Carolina, where he enjoys playing games, eating pizza, and, perhaps not too surprisingly, reading books.
Alan’s 2022 novel Two Degrees and his 2021 novel Ground Zero were both instant #1 New York Times bestsellers, and were also ABA Indie, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestsellers. His 2019 novel Allies debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list and received four starred reviews, and 2018’s Grenade debuted at #3. His other books include Prisoner B-3087, which was a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Readers pick and winner of eight state awards; Projekt 1065, a Kirkus Best Middle Grade Book of 2016 and winner of five state awards; Code of Honor, a YALSA Quick Pick for Young Readers; and Ban This Book, which was featured by Whoopi Goldberg on The View.
Alan has travelled extensively to talk about his books, appearing at schools and book festivals in 39 states and a half-dozen countries, including Brazil, Canada, China, Indonesia, Japan, and Switzerland, and has been a Writer in Residence at Tokyo’s American School in Japan, the James Thurber House in Columbus, Ohio, and the Jakarta Intercultural School in Indonesia.
Written Works[]
- The Ghost Army - a Captain America graphic novel showing Cap and Bucky facing off against a "Ghost Army".
Novels[]
- Samurai Shortstop
- Something Rotten - the first Horatio Wilkes novel
- Something Wicked - the second Horatio Wiles novel
- Fantasy Baseball
- The Assassination Game - part of the Starfleet Academy series. Shows a terrorist attacking the Academy.
- Prisoner B-3087 - The first of Gratz's World War II novels. Set within the Holocaust.
- Code of Honor - a novel about the War on Terror
- Projekt 1065
- Ban This Book - tells of a girl fighting against book censorship'
- Refugee - a novel about three refugees
- Grenade - The second of Gratz's World War II novels. Set in the Pacific Theatre.
- Allies - The third of Gratz's World War II novels. Set in D-Day.
- Resist
- Ground Zero
- Two Degrees
- Heroes
The League of Seven[]
- The League of Seven
- The Dragon Lantern
- The Monster War
Sources[]
- Wikipedia