Clements, Andrew (1949-2019), an American children’s author , was noted for his picture books and novels for middle-school readers. Several of Clements’s picture books deal with such important themes as friendship, accepting differences among people, and dealing with bullies. Many of his novels take place in a school setting and concern relationships between students and their teachers.
Among Clements’s most popular picture books is Big Al (1988), the story of a large, scary-looking fish who wants to be liked and finally wins the friendship of smaller fish. Clements also won praise for picture books that help readers develop their counting skills. For example, A Million Dots (2006) helps readers understand the number 1,000,000.
Clements won acclaim for his first novel, Frindle (1996), a story about language. It tells about a fifth-grade student who invents the word “frindle” to replace the word “pen.”
Clements wrote several series. One centers on the adventures of a fourth-grade boy named Jake Drake. The series began with Jake Drake, Bully Buster (2001). The “Slippers” series follows the adventures of a lovable puppy and its family of owners. The series began with Slippers at Home (2004). The series “Benjamin Pratt and the Keepers of the School” tells about how Benjamin Pratt and his young friends try to save their school from being torn down and replaced by an amusement park. The series began with We the Children (2010).
Clements was born on May 29, 1949, in Camden, New Jersey. He received a B.A. degree from Northwestern University in 1971 and an M.A. degree from National Louis University in 1972. Clements taught in suburban Chicago schools from 1972 to 1979. He then worked for several publishers in sales and marketing and as an editor from 1980 to 1985 and from 1987 to 1998. Clements’s first published work was the picture book Bird Adalbert (1985). He died at his home in Maine on Nov. 28, 2019.
