Andrew Clements (born May 29, 1949) is an American author of children's books. Clements grew up in Camden, New Jersey and Springfield, Illinois, United States,. As a child, he enjoyed summers at a lakeside cabin in Maine where he spent his days swimming and hiking and water skiing, and his evenings reading books. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Northwestern University and a Masters of Arts in Elementary Education from National Louis University, he worked as a teacher sharing his love of reading with elementary, middle, and high school students. He started his literary career by writing songs. Then he worked for several publishing companies where he published, acquired, edited, marketed, and developed quality children's books. In 1985, Clements added his own work to the market with a picture book entitled Bird Adalbert. His first novel was the award-winning Frindle, which has won sixteen state book awards, as well as the Christopher Award. Clements works have been translated into several languages including German, Italian, French, Korean, Portuguese, Basque, Hungarian, Japanese, Dutch, and Spanish. Clements currently lives in Westborough, Massachusetts, with his wife Rebecca. He has four grown children - Charles, George, Nathaniel, and John.