Growing up, Jerry Spinelli was really serious about baseball. He played for the Green Sox Little League team in his hometown of Norristown, Pennsylvania, and dreamed of one day playing for the major leagues, preferably as shortstop for the New York Yankees. One night during high school, Spinelli watched the football team win an exciting game against one of the best teams in the country. While everyone else rode about town tooting horns in celebration, Spinelli went home and wrote "Goal to Go," a poem about the game's defining moment, a goal-line stand. His father submitted the poem to the Norristown Times-Herald and it was featured in the middle of the sports page a few days later. He then traded in his baseball bat for a pencil, because he knew that he wanted to become a writer. After graduating from Gettysburg College with an English degree, Spinelli worked full time as a magazine editor. Every day on his lunch hour, he would close his office door and craft novels on yellow magazine copy paper. He wrote four adult novels in 12 years of lunchtime writing, but none of these were accepted for publication. When he submitted a fifth novel about a year-old boy, adult
Spinelli, Jerry
Personal
Born February 1, , in Norristown, PA; son of Louis A. (a printer) and Lorna Mae Spinelli; married Eileen Mesi (a writer), May 21, ; children: Kevin, Barbara, Jeffrey, Molly, Sean, Ben. Education: Gettysburg College, A.B., ; Johns Hopkins University, M.A., ; attended Temple University, Hobbies and other interests: Tennis, country music, travel, pet rats.
Addresses
Home—PA.
Career
Writer. Chilton Company (magazine publishers), Radnor, PA, editor, Military service: U.S. Naval Reserve,
Awards, Honors
Boston Globe/Horn Book Award, , Newbery Medal, American Library Association (ALA), and Carolyn Field Award, both , Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, Indian Paintbrush Award, Rhode Island Children's Book Award, Flicker Tale Award, Charlotte Award, Mark
Twain Award, and Nevada Young Readers' Award, all , and William Allen White Award, Pacific Northwest Award, Massachusetts Children's Book Award, Rebecca Caudhill Award, West Virginia Children's Book Award, Buckeye Children's Book Award, Land of Enchantment Award, all , all for Maniac Magee;South Carolina Children's Book Award, , for Fourth Grade Rats; California Young Readers' Medal, , for T
() A graduate of Gettysburg College, Jerry Spinelli spent years working as a magazine editor before his writing career took off. He published his first book for kids, Space Station Seventh Grade, in In , Spinelli debuted the award-winning novel Maniac Magee. More acclaimed works soon followed, including Wringer (), Stargirl () and Milkweed (). His recent publications include Jake and Lily (), Hokey Pokey () and Mama Seeton's Whistle (). Spinelli was born on February 1, , in Norristown, Pennsylvania. He is known for such works as Maniac Magee (), Wringer () and Stargirl (). As a child, his big ambition was to become a cowboy. He even turned up to school one day in his full western regalia. On his website, Spinelli wrote, “in second grade I dressed up in my cowboy outfit, complete with golden cap pistols and spurs on my boots.” He even “got up and sang ‘I Have Spurs that Jingle Jangle Jingle.’” Spinelli then dreamed of being a baseball player. He was involved in the sport during his junior high and high school years, but he soon switched gears. In an interview on , Spinelli said he had his first work
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Jerry Spinelli
Who Is Jerry Spinelli?
Early Life
When I was a junior in high school, I wrote a poem about a high school football game, which was published in my local newspaper and started my career as a writer. After high school, I went to Gettysburg College where I received a Bachelors of Arts degree in While I was at Gettysburg College, I wrote my first short stories and was the editor of the College Literary Magazine. After graduating, I then went to Johns Hopkins University to obtain my Masters of Arts degree in
After college, I had a very hard time getting published as an author. Before my writing career took off, I worked for a magazine publisher and would spend my lunch breaks writing stories
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