About Louis Sachar

When Louis Sachar was a kid his family moved from East Meadow, New York to Orange County, California. At the time, Orange County was mostly orange groves. Sachar cut through the orange groves on the way to school, and had orange fights on the way home.

In college, after taking more than a year of Russian classes, Sachar realized it was still Greek to him. He tried to figure out what he should study instead. As he wandered across the campus, he saw an elementary school student handing out pieces of paper that read: "Help. We need teachers' aides at our school. Earn three units of credit." He had no interest whatsoever in kids, but he signed up. It turned out to be not only his favorite class, but also the most important class he took.

Around that time, Sachar read a book of short stories about different characters in a town called, In Our Town by Damon Runyon. It gave him the idea for Sideways Stories from Wayside School, which is a book of short stories about different kids in a school. All the Wayside kids are named after students Sachar knew at the school where he worked.

Sideways Stories from Wayside School was published just as Louis began law school. For years he struggled to decide between being an author and being a lawyer. He finally decided to devote his time to writing books for kids. Sachar has written more Wayside School books, the Marvin Redpost series, and the 1999 Newbery winner, Holes.