Biography
Van Draanen lives in California with her husband Mark Pearson and two sons, Colton and Connor. She is the daughter of chemists who emigrated to the U.S. from Holland. She worked as a high school math teacher and computer science teacher before writing became her career.
One of Van Draanen's early influences was Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. According to the author, the book was "about the magic of growing up and reminded me of all the wonderful mischief my brothers and I got into when we were young." Bradbury's work inspired to Van Draanen to write How I Survived Being a Girl, which was published by HarperCollins in 1997.
Read more about this topic: Wendelin Van Draanen
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