David A. Adler

David Abraham Adler (born April 10, 1947) is an American writer of 265 books for children and young adults, most notably the Cam Jansen mystery series, the Picture Book Of... series, and several acclaimed works about the Holocaust for young readers.

Biography Adler was born in New York to a Jewish family. He graduated from Queens College in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in economics and education. He worked as a mathematics teacher for the New York City Board of Education, while taking classes towards a master's degree in marketing, a degree he was awarded by New York University in 1971. In that same year, a question from his then-three-year-old nephew inspired Adler to write his first story, A Little at a Time, subsequently published by Random House in 1976. Adler's next project, a series of math books, drew on his experience as a math teacher. In 1977, he created his most famous character, Cam Jansen, originally featured in Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds, which was first published in 1980 and is still in print along with more than 50 other Cam Jansen Mysteries. Worldwide, more than 30,000,000 books have been printed and sold.

Adler married psychologist Renee Hamada in 1973, and their first child, Michael, was born in 1977. By that time Adler had taken a break from teaching and, while his wife continued her work, he stayed home, took care of Michael, and began a full-time writing career.

Adler's son, Michael S. Adler, is now the co-author of several books with his father, including A Picture Book of Sam Adams, A Picture Book of John Hancock, and A Picture Book of James and Dolly Madison. Another son, Edward, was the inspiration for Adler's Andy Russell series, with the events described in the series loosely based on adventures the Adler family had with Edward's enthusiasm and his pets.

Adler has won many awards including the Theodor Seuss Geisel award for the 2015 book Don't Throw It To Mo! (together with illustrator Sam Ricks), the Knickerbocker Award for his body of work, the 2017 Regina Medal for his body of work from the Catholic Library Association, the California Young Readers' Medal for his book "The Babe and I," The 2006 Storytelling World Award for "Joe Louis: America's Fighter," the 2006 Children's Gallery Award for "Mama Played Baseball," The Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor for "Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man," and The Sydney Taylor ALJ Award for "The Number on My Grandfather's Arm." Regina Award in 2017 and the Orthodox Jewish All-Star Award also in 2017.

As of September 2016, Adler has three sons and five grandsons. He lives in Woodmere, New York.

Books

Cam Jansen mystery series

Cam Jansen is a series of books following the exploits of a fifth-grade female detective named Jennifer "Cam" Jansen and her best friend Eric. Nicknamed Cam for her photographic memory, the protagonist closes her eyes and says "click" at various points in a story, mimicking the noise of a camera while memorizing a scene in front of her. She later recalls these scenes to aid in solving a mystery. The Cam Jansen character was based on an elementary school classmate of Adler's who was believed to have a photographic memory.

A stage musical based on the character Cam Jansen and novels was produced by Theatreworks USA Off-Broadway in 2004. The musical has music by Laurence O'Keefe and lyrics and a book by Nell Benjamin.

Young Cam Jansen series

Holocaust books for young readers The Number on My Grandfather's Arm (1987) We Remember the Holocaust (1989) A Picture Book of Anne Frank (1993) Hilde and Eli: Children of the Holocaust (1994) One Yellow Daffodil: A Hanukkah Story (1995) Child of the Warsaw Ghetto (1995) Hiding from the Nazis (1997) A Hero and the Holocaust: The Story of Janusz Korczak and His Children (2003)

Bones mystery series Bones and the Big Yellow Mystery (2004) Bones and the Dog Gone Mystery (2004) Bones and the Cupcake Mystery (2005) Bones and the Dinosaur Mystery (2005) Bones and the Birthday Mystery (2007) Bones and the Math Test Mystery (2008) Bones and the Roller Coaster Mystery (2009) Bones and the Clown Mix-Up Mystery (2010) Bones and the Football Mystery (2012)

Andy Russell series The Many Troubles of Andy Russell (1998) Andy and Tamika (1999) School Trouble for Andy Russell (1999) Parachuting Hamsters and Andy Russell (2000) Andy Russell, Not Wanted By the Police (2001) It's a Baby, Andy Russell (2005)

Biographies (including the "Picture Book of ...")

Other series The Fourth Floor Twins series A Houdini Club Mystery series Jeffrey's Ghost series Jelly Eli Z. series Mo Jackson series My Dog mystery series T.F. Benson mystery series

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