An Uncategorized List of 15 Fun Facts About Your Favorite Tween/Teen Books and Authors
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Because sometimes, what you’re looking for is a fun little nugget of knowledge to share at a party, as a conversation starter, or as something to tuck away for future trivia nights. Find below a collection of uncategorized facts and tidbits about tween and teen authors and books. Some of these you might be familiar with, but others might be brand new.
- Mrs. Doubtfire is based on a YA book. The book, published in 1987, is called Madame Doubtfire and was written by Anne Fine.
- Author DJ MacHale, author of Pendragon and several other books for middle grade readers, was a writer for Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark?
- Speaking of authors who wrote for Nickelodeon, Suzanne Collins, author of the YA game-changer The Hunger Games, was a writer for Clarissa Explains It All.
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- Speaking of famous people on YA book covers, Kirsten Dunst was the child on the cover of Ann M. Martin’s Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls book from The Baby-Sitters Club.
- You can discover who some of the ghostwriters are for The Baby-Sitters Club if you look in the acknowledgments. A couple of names that will likely be familiar to you include Suzanne Weyn (The Bar Code Tattoo, etc.) and Peter Lerangis (39 Clues, etc.).
- Remember Hope Hicks, who was part of the presidential administration for a short time? She was a cover model The It Girl, which was part of a YA book series popular during the Gossip Girl era.
- There are at least two books featuring…hot dog suits.
- The first YA book to hit the New York Times Bestseller list was Sweet Valley High, the Super Edition Perfect Summer. That was in 1985.
- Master of scaring young people, R.L. Stine was behind a series of comics books before turning to Goosebumps. You can track those down still under the name Jovial Bob Stine.
- Caroling B. Cooney, known for The Face on the Milk Carton, wrote a number of books as part of teen-facing romance series, including the infamous “Wildfire” line from Scholastic.
- Say hello to Amanda Seyfried, cover model in a redesign of one of Francine Pascal’s many, many series.
- Oingo Boingo’s Danny Elfman was the son of a YA author. Blossom Elfman wrote a few YA books for the ever-present series books of the ’80s and ’90s, including the “Mike and Ally” mysteries.
- Tyra Banks only ever published one book in the projected trilogy of Modelland.
