The Life of Jerry Spinelli
Jerry Spinelli was born on February 1, 1941 in Norristown, Pennsylvania to Louis and Lorna Mae Bigler Spinelli. As a young child, he loved to explore around his neighborhood and he used his wild imagination to have fun with his friends. This imagination is what sparked the writer inside Spinelli to write book. Eventually, near the end of his high school years, he decided that he wanted to become a writer so he went to Gettysburg College to get his Bachelor of Arts degree in English and then went to John Hopkins to receive his Master's. It would take Spinelli 20 years before his first book was published and in the meantime he worked as an editor among other things. While he was working as an editor, he wrote four books. However, none of them were published and on his fifth try, his adult book was published as a children's book and it became a hit. This has led Spinelli to continue to write over 25 books, some of which have received great awards and have been made into movies. He currently lives in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania with his wife Eileen. They have six children and 21 grandchildren who he loves very much. Spinelli continues to write and his latest book, Jake and Lily, is most likely not his last. Learn more about Spinelli and his wife Eileen in the Random House interview below.