Untwisted: The Story of My Life

Author Bio: Paul Jennings

Paul Jennings is a phenomenon in the world of children’s books. He has written more than one hundred stories, and sales of his books exceed 6.7 million copies. Since the publication of Unreal in 1985, he has been entertaining children of all ages with his tales of the strange and the fantastic, encouraging them to become enthusiastic, skilled readers. He has been voted “favorite author” by children in Australia over forty times and has won every children’s choice award in the country including the Young Australians’ Best Book Award fifteen times and the Kids Own Australian Literature Award six times. He is a ten-time winner of the Kids Reading Oz Choice Award, and in 2001 he was awarded the COOL Award for “Coolest Book of the Decade” for The Paw Thing. He worked as a special-education teacher, then speech pathologist, then became a university lecturer before turning to full-time writing. Helping children learn to read, particularly those with difficulties, has been a huge motivator throughout his career. In 1995 he was appointed a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to children’s literature.