Louis Sachar is the author of humorous and poignant stories for children and young adults. He published his first book, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, in 1978 and won the Newbery Medal in 1999 for his witty and suspenseful novel Holes. Sachar writes about topics familiar to children and young adults such as friendship, family relationships, overcoming obstacles, building character, and the consequences of choices. His protagonists are usually misfits — characters labeled nerd, bully, or klutz by classmates — who overcome their fears and anxieties while discovering their strengths through comical and realistic experiences and interactions with peers and adults. When Sachar writes, his goal is to make reading fun for his readers. Amidst the fun, he incorporates themes that encourage readers to think about right and wrong.
Sachar was born on March 20, 1954, in East Meadow, New York, to Robert J. Sachar, a salesman, and Ruth Raybin Sachar, a real estate broker. When he was nine years old, his family moved to Tustin, California. Sachar was a good student and liked school. He always enjoyed reading books, especially those by E.B. White. However, it wasn't until Sachar was in high school that he truly realized his love for reading.
After graduating from high school, Sachar enrolled in Antioch College in Ohio. Soon after classes began, his father died suddenly and Sachar returned to California to be with his mother. The following semester, rather than resume his studies in Ohio, Sachar enrolled in the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in economics. Sachar's love of reading continued. His favorite authors included E.L. Doctorow, J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, Kazuo Ishiguro, Flannery O'Connor, Rex Stout, and Katherine Paterson. He developed an interest in Russian literature (two of his favorite Russian authors are Tolstoy and Dostoevsky) but, after dropping a Russian language course in college, decided to take an education class because he thought it would be easy: All he was required to do to earn three credits was work as a teacher's aide at a local elementary school. The course involved no homework, and he was not required to write any papers. Working as a teacher's aide was a significant experience in Sachar's life, because it inspired him to write a children's book. At the time, writing was a hobby for Sachar; he never expected his work to be published.
