Wendelin Van Draanen

Biography

Wendelin Van Draanen (born 1965) grew up in a large family in California, studied computer science, and taught high school math and science before turning to writing. She is best known for the Sammy Keyes mystery series and Flipped. Her background in science and education informs the novel's interest in observation, perspective, and the empirical question of how we know what we know about other people. She has spoken about growing up in a neighborhood with visible class differences — families with manicured lawns next to families whose yards reflected different priorities — and this observation became the seed of the Baker-Loski dynamic.

Wendelin Van Draanen at a glance