WARREN, Andrea 1946-

PERSONAL: Born October 30, 1946, in Norfolk, NE; daughter of James V. (a public school administrator) and Ruth (an executive director of a charitable organization; maiden name, Wilson) Warren; married Jay Wiedenkeller, November 22, 1981; children: Alison, Brendon (deceased), Kymberly, Derek. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: University of Nebraska, B.S., 1968, M.A., 1971; University of Kansas, M.S., 1983. Hobbies and other interests: Reading, travel, theater.

ADDRESSES: Home and office—4908 West 71st St., Shawnee Mission, KS 66208-2309. Agent—Regina Ryan, 251 Central Park W, New York, NY 10024. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: High school English teacher in Hastings, NE, 1969-79; University of Kansas, Lawrence, writer and editor, 1979-81; Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, Lawrence, editor of national magazine, 1981; freelance writer, 1982—.

MEMBER: American Society of Journalists and Authors, Orphan Train Heritage Society of America, Writers Place of Kansas City.

AWARDS, HONORS: Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, nonfiction category, 1996, for Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Story; Society of Midland Authors, citation for "best children's nonfiction," 1997, for Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Story, award for best children's book, c. 1998, for Pioneer Girl: Growing Up on the Prairie, and nonfiction book award, c. 2001, for Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps; citations for "notable children's trade book in the field of social studies," National Council for Social Studies and Children's Book Council, 1997, for Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Story, c. 1998, for Pioneer Girl: Growing Up on the Prairie, and c. 2001, for both Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps and We Rode the Orphan Trains; American Library Association, "notable book" citation, 1997, for Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Story, and Robert F. Sibert Honor Book Award, most distinguished informational book for children, c. 2001, for Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps; citation for "book of distinction," Hungry Mind Review, and citation for "best book in social studies for grades kindergarten through six," Society of School Librarians International, both 1997, Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award, Pennsylvania Young Readers' Award, Lamplight Award from National Christian Schools, Young Hoosier Book Award, and Jane Addams Children's Honor Book Award, all for Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Story; Nonfiction Honor Book Award, Voice of Youth Advocates, 2001, for both Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps and We Rode the Orphan Trains; included among "top ten biographies for 2001," Booklist, for We Rode the Orphan Trains; inclusion in master list for William Allen White Book Award, 2003-04, for Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps; Children's Book Award, South Carolina Association of School Librarians, and Orbis Pictus Award, outstanding nonfiction for children, National Council of Teachers of English, both for Pioneer Girl: Growing Up on the Prairie; Gold Medal, children's nonfiction category, National Association of Parenting Publications, Sydney Taylor Book Award and citation among "notable children's books of Jewish Content," both Association of Jewish Libraries, selection as "outstanding children's book," American Society of Journalists and Authors, and Learned Research Journal Award, national women's committee of Brandeis University, all for Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps.

WRITINGS:

JUVENILE

Coming on Strong (novel), Scholastic (New York, NY), 1986.

Searching for Love (novel), Bantam (New York, NY), 1987.

Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Story, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1996.

Pioneer Girl: Growing Up on the Prairie, Morrow (New York, NY), 1998.

Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps, 11HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2001.

We Rode the Orphan Trains, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2001.

Escape from Saigon: How a Vietnam War Orphan Boy Became an American Boy, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2004.

FOR ADULTS

Recovering from Breast Cancer, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1991.

(With husband, Jay Wiedenkeller) Everybody's Doing It: How to Survive Your Teenagers' Sex Life (and Help Them Survive It, Too), Penguin (New York, NY), 1993.

A Mission of Healing: The History of Saint Joseph Health Center, St. Mary's Hospital of Blue Springs, and the Creation of Carondelet Health of Kansas City, Carondelet Health Press (Kansas City, MO), 1999.

Contributor of more than a hundred articles to magazines and newspapers, including Ladies' Home Journal, American Health, Reader's Digest, American Education, Good Housekeeping, and World and I.

SIDELIGHTS: Andrea Warren once told CA: "I have had a varied career, though all of it has in some way connected me to words and the joy of writing, or teaching writing. Under different circumstances, I would have first become a working journalist. Instead, it was a foregone conclusion that I would become a teacher, and no surprise that I selected English as my field, since reading and writing were always my great passions.

"My other teaching assignments included world history, debate, and creative writing. I moved to Lawrence, Kansas, in the summer of 1979, and for the next two years worked as an editor on a women's equity grant studying women in school administration. Shortly before I completed my master's degree in magazine journalism, I was hired to edit a golf magazine. I then worked briefly as a newspaper reporter while starting my freelance writing career, which took off in 1983. I also taught writing and communication workshops and a magazine writing seminar.

"My first two books were young adult novels. The next two were adult trade books. I then moved to history for young readers when I wrote Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Story and Pioneer Girl: Growing Up on the Prairie. At least for the foreseeable future, I will continue to write for young readers, loosely defined as grades five through ten. Those were the years in my life when I was an insatiable reader.

"I grew up in a tiny Nebraska town, and our public library was my refuge. I still remember books I read and re-read there. At the time it never occurred to me that someday I could write books. In fact, it took me several decades to confront my desire to write full-time. I kept waiting for someone to tell me to do it—to give me permission. I finally had to give myself permission, and it was the hardest and the easiest thing I've ever done.

"Orphan Train Rider came readily as a subject. Ever since I first learned of them when I was a child, I had been interested in the orphan trains and the 150,000 American children who rode the rails to new homes. Pioneer Girl grew out of my interest in sharing with my readers what it was really like to grow up on the prairie. The book tells the true story of a Nebraska pioneer who lived in a sod house and spent her childhood working hard to help her parents.

"My interests typically lie in the stories of ordinary people and how they work through the challenges of their own lives. I have a special interest in children caught up in circumstances beyond their control, but I have also written many magazine stories about adults who find themselves in extraordinary difficulties, which they meet with grace, perseverance, and courage. When I come across this type of story, I find it irresistible.

"While I love fiction, I am happy at present writing nonfiction history. I might have majored in history and devoted my teaching career to it except for one major problem: I so often found it boring. Wars and treaties and successions of kings and presidents didn't interest me nearly so much as the people behind the facts. I loved historic literature, like War and Peace, which taught me the facts, but did so almost surreptitiously because I was so engrossed in the lives of the characters. I have tried to pattern my writing for children in the same way.

"I write every weekday. I keep regular office hours and, when I'm not on the phone or handling billings or some such thing, I am writing. I meet weekly with two other writers here in Kansas City who also make their living by freelancing magazine articles and books, and we critique each others' work and offer support for the vagaries and difficulties of the writer's life. Although my children are grown and away from home, I love working at home, and I have a sunny office that I always enjoy. I share my life with my husband, Jay, and feel fortunate to do so."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July, 1996, p. 1826; January 1, 2001, Hazel Rochman, review of Surviving Hitler: A Boy inthe Nazi Death Camps, p. 930; November 1, 2001, Hazel Rochman, review of We Rode the Orphan Trains, p. 477.

Capper's, March 4, 2003, review of We Rode the Orphan Trains, p. 6.

Horn Book, January-February, 1997, pp. 35-39; March, 2001, review of Surviving Hitler, p. 235; November-December, 2001, Peter D. Sieruta, review of We Rode the Orphan Trains, p. 775.

Ladies' Home Journal, December, 1997, p. 80.

Library Journal, April 1, 1993, p. 118.

Publishers Weekly, October 1, 2001, review of We Rode the Orphan Trains, p. 63.

School Library Journal, August, 1996, p. 162; March, 2001, Steven Engelfried, review of Surviving Hitler, p. 280; November, 2001, William McLoughlin, review of We Rode the Orphan Trains, p. 189.

Times Educational Supplement, January 18, 2002, Tom Deveson, review of Surviving Hitler, p. 22.

Writer's Digest, July, 1988, p. 72.