Louis Sachar Popular Books

Louis Sachar Biography & Facts

Louis Sachar ( SAK-ər; born March 20, 1954) is an American young-adult mystery-comedy author. He is best known for the Wayside School series and the novel Holes. Holes 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". In 2013, it was ranked sixth among all children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal. Biography Sachar was born to a religious Jewish family in East Meadow, New York. As a child, he attended Hebrew school and Sunday school. After graduating from Tustin High School, Sachar attended Antioch College for a semester before transferring to University of California, Berkeley, during which time he began helping at an elementary school in return for three college credits. Sachar later recalled, I thought it over and decided it was a pretty good deal. College credits, no homework, no term papers, no tests, all I had to do was help out in a second/third grade class at Hillside Elementary School. Besides helping out in a classroom, I also became the Noontime Supervisor, or "Louis the Yard Teacher" as I was known to the kids. It became my favorite college class, and a life changing experience. Sachar graduated from UC Berkeley in 1976 with a degree in Economics, and began working on Sideways Stories From Wayside School, a children's book set at an elementary school with supernatural elements. Although the book's students were named after children from Hillside and there is a presumably autobiographical character named "Louis the Yard Teacher," Sachar has said that he draws very little from personal experience, stating that ". ... my personal experiences are kind of boring. I have to make up what I put in my books."Sachar wrote the book at night over the course of nine months, during which he worked during the day in a Connecticut sweater warehouse. After being fired from the warehouse, Sachar decided to go to law school, around which time Sideways Stories From Wayside School was accepted for publication. The book was released in 1978; though it was not widely distributed and subsequently did not sell very well, Sachar began to accumulate a fan base among young readers. Sachar graduated from University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1980 and did part-time legal work while continuing to write children's books. By 1989, his books were selling well enough that Sachar was able to begin writing full-time.Sachar married Carla Askew, an elementary school counselor, in 1985. They live in Austin, Texas, and have a daughter, Sherre, born January 19, 1987. Sachar has mentioned both his wife and daughter in his books; Carla was the inspiration for the counselor in There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom (1988), and Stanley's lawyer in Holes. When asked about whether he thought children have changed over the years, Sachar responded: "I've actually been writing since 1976, and my first book is still in print and doing very well." Film and television On April 11, 2003, Disney's film adaptation of Holes was released, which earned $71.4 million worldwide. Sachar himself wrote the screenplay, at the request of the film's director Andrew Davis, and has a brief on-screen cameo during one of the flashback scenes. On November 19, 2005, the Wayside School series was adapted into an animated direct-to-video special. Two years later, it became a television series with two seasons, airing on the Canadian Teletoon and Nickelodeon in the U.S. Works Wayside SchoolSideways Stories from Wayside School (1978) Wayside School is Falling Down (1989) Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School (1989) More Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School (1994) Wayside School Gets A Little Stranger (1995) Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom (2020)Marvin RedpostKidnapped at Birth? (1992) Why Pick on Me? (1993) Is He a Girl? (1993) Alone In His Teacher's House (1994) Class President (1999) A Flying Birthday Cake? (1999) Super Fast Out of Control! (2000) A Magic Crystal? (2000)Holes seriesHoles (1998) — winner of the National Book Award and Newbery Medal Stanley Yelnats' Survival Guide to Camp Green Lake (2003) Small Steps (2006)Other booksJohnny's in the Basement (1981) Someday Angeline (1983) Sixth Grade Secrets (1987) (known as Pig City in the UK) There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom (1987) The Boy Who Lost His Face (1989) Dogs Don't Tell Jokes (1991) The Cardturner (2010) Captain Tory (2011) (collected in The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales) Fuzzy Mud (2015)References External links Louis Sachar at IMDb Louis Sachar at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database Louis Sachar at Library of Congress, with 40 library catalog records. Discover the Louis Sachar popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Louis Sachar books.

Best Seller Louis Sachar Books of 2024

  • My Left Foot synopsis, comments

    My Left Foot

    Christy Brown

    Christy Brown was born a victim of cerebral palsy. But the hapless, lolling baby concealed the brilliantly imaginative and sensitive mind of a writer who would take his place among...

  • The Mystery of Mystic Mountain synopsis, comments

    The Mystery of Mystic Mountain

    Janet Fox

    A girl tackles a summer filled with mystery, treasure, and learning to be her true self in this middle grade adventure that’s a modernday Holes set on a dusty dude ranch in Montana...

  • Traitor synopsis, comments

    Traitor

    Pete Johnson

    Tom, Mia and Oliver are the victims of a gang of bullies who waylay them on the way home from school. It's not at school, so the teachers wouldn't be able to help, and they don't...

  • The Frankenstein Teacher synopsis, comments

    The Frankenstein Teacher

    Tony Bradman

    The floor shook. The tables and chairs shook. The children shook. Suddenly, the door creaked open... and a huge figure loomed over them. It was... The Frankenstein Teacher!Class 3F...

  • Attack of the Killer Komodos synopsis, comments

    Attack of the Killer Komodos

    Summer Rachel Short

    Perfect for fans of Stranger Things and The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl, this “thrilling, fastpaced” (School Library Journal) second book in the Maggie and Nate Mystery serie...

  • In the Nick of Time synopsis, comments

    In the Nick of Time

    Robert Swindells

    Charlotte is out in the woods on her own one day when something mysterious happens she walks along a row of stones laid like stepping stones on the forest floor . . . and finds he...

  • Six Foot Six synopsis, comments

    Six Foot Six

    Kit de Waal

    It's an exciting day for Timothy Flowers. It's the third of November, and it's Friday, and it's his twentyfirst birthday. When Timothy walks to his usual street corner to see his f...

  • Bad Becky synopsis, comments

    Bad Becky

    Gervase Phinn

    Bad Becky is cheeky, opinionated and always in some kind of trouble. But you can't help loving her! I mean wouldn't you rather hear a story about a princess who gets gobbled up by ...

  • The Size of the Truth synopsis, comments

    The Size of the Truth

    Andrew Smith

    A boy who spent three days trapped in a well tries to overcome his PTSD and claustrophobia so he can fulfill his dream of becoming a famous chef in Andrew Smith’s first middle grad...

  • Bite the Bagel synopsis, comments

    Bite the Bagel

    Joel Ross

    Loveable prankster Alley and bunnysuited brainiac Rex team up again, this time to help each other survive PE and save breakfast, one mutant bagel at a time in this hilarious story ...

  • Blitzed synopsis, comments

    Blitzed

    Robert Swindells

    George is fascinated by World War Two. Bombers, Nazis, doodlebugs. But he discovers the reality is very different from how he had imagined it when a school trip to a World War Two ...

  • Bye-bye, Blue Creek synopsis, comments

    Bye-bye, Blue Creek

    Andrew Smith

    Sam Abernathy prepares to leave home for the first time in this charming followup to awardwinning author Andrew Smith’s The Size of Truth.Vampires have just moved into the haunted ...

  • The Actor And The Text synopsis, comments

    The Actor And The Text

    Cicely Berry

    Cicely Berry, Voice Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, is worldfamous for her voice teaching. The Actor and the Text is her classic book, distilled from years of working wi...

  • My Rocky Romance Diary synopsis, comments

    My Rocky Romance Diary

    Liz Rettig

    Kelly Ann is all lovedup with her gorgeous soulmate, Chris, so there's no way she's going to let her attraction for the dark and dangerous new boy at school go any further. OK, so ...

  • Brooksie synopsis, comments

    Brooksie

    Neil Arksey

    Imagine having a Premier league and England striker as your dad! Lee Brooks loves it, until his dad 'Brooksie' loses form and goes downhill embarrassingly fast. Lee hates...

  • Warehouse synopsis, comments

    Warehouse

    Keith Gray

    'I know a place you can go'. It's a secret place hidden among the rundown buildings of the derelict dockyards. A community of young people have gathered in an old warehouse to get ...

  • All the Way Down synopsis, comments

    All the Way Down

    Stewart Foster

    A lifeaffirming story about friendship, adventure and selfbelief, from the awardwinning author of The Bubble Boy. Perfect for fans of Louis Sachar’s Holes and Elle McNicoll’s A Kin...

  • Naked synopsis, comments

    Naked

    Kevin Brooks

    London, 1976: a summer of chaos, punk, love . . . and the boy they called Billy the Kid.It was the summer of so many things. Heat and violence, love and hate, heaven and hell. It w...

  • Web of Lies synopsis, comments

    Web of Lies

    Beverley Naidoo

    Two years after their flight from Nigeria, 14yrold Sade, her younger brother Femi and her father are living in a council flat in London, waiting for their claim for asylum to be ap...

  • The Mutant Mushroom Takeover synopsis, comments

    The Mutant Mushroom Takeover

    Summer Rachel Short

    Stranger Things meets The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl in this offbeat adventure about Maggie, an aspiring young naturalist, and her YouTuber best friend, Nate, who use their ...

  • The Runaways synopsis, comments

    The Runaways

    Ruth Thomas

    Julia and Nathan have no friends to speak of. They're misfits of Mrs Henrey's class awlays the last to be picekd for the team, and always without a partner. Then they disc...

  • Scarecrows synopsis, comments

    Scarecrows

    Robert Westall

    There were three people, standing in the darkest place, watching him. Simon is outraged that his Mum plans to remarry. He can't bear her new fiancé or the way his mother and sister...

  • Jumping to Confusions synopsis, comments

    Jumping to Confusions

    Liz Rettig

    A brilliantly funny tale of romantic confusion!Cat is fat and boring or so she thinks. Her mum is a stick insect and so is her twin sister Tessa a bit of a spoilt brat who can ge...

  • Timesnatch synopsis, comments

    Timesnatch

    Robert Swindells

    Once a creature is extinct, it's gone for ever, isn't it?Not any more as a butterfly from the past proves. The physicist mother of Kizzy Rye and Fraser Rye has invented an amazing...

  • The Henry Game synopsis, comments

    The Henry Game

    Susan Davis

    Imagine meeting Henry VIII and finding he's madly in love with you!One lazy summer afternoon Abigail persuades Lauren and Marina to experiment with a homemade ouija board. The girl...

  • Inner Feng Shui synopsis, comments

    Inner Feng Shui

    Lillian Too

    This extraordinary and extremely helpful book takes Feng Shui much further than it has ever been before. Bestselling author Lillian Too shows how you can use this ancient art to ...