American author Louis Sachar was born on March 20, 1954, in East Meadow, N.Y., and lived there until third grade. Born into a religious Jewish family, as a child, he attended Hebrew School and Sunday School.

When he was nine, his family moved to Tustin, Calif. It wasn’t until high school that he started to love reading, and thought about writing his own books. Sachar graduated from the University of California, Berkley with a degree in Economics. He later attended the University of California, Hastings College of Law, where he graduated from in 1980. He did part-time legal work and continued writing children’s books. By 1989, his books were selling well enough that he began writing full-time.

His first book, “Sideways Stories from Wayside School,” was published in 1978, about the time he started law school. “Wayside School Is Falling Down” and “Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School” both followed in 1989. Three more Wayside books followed in 1994, 1995 and 2020, a well-known series of his. Children like his books because the characters in the books speak and act like real children. They are often funny, but also show challenges that children face.

Sachar is best known for his novel “Holes,” which won the 1998 U.S. National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and the 1999 Newbery Medal for the year’s “most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.”

Disney’s film adaptation of “Holes” was released on April 11, 2003. On Nov. 19, 2005, the Wayside School series was adapted into a direct-to-video special, and two years later, a television series lasted for two seasons on Nickelodeon.

Sachar married Carla Jean Askew, an elementary school counselor, in 1985, and they have a daughter, Sherre. They live in Austin, Texas with their dog, Watson. Sachar’s favorite pastime is playing bridge, taking part in tournaments around the country.

We have three of his junior fiction books and three of his young adult fiction books, including “Holes.”