BIOGRAPHICAL STUFF

Okay, I know what you’re thinking. Tui? What kind of name is that? Is it short for something?

Nope. Among the many great things to come out of New Zealand (the Lord of the Rings movies, cats that paint, my mom) is a bird called the tui—not as well known as the kiwi, but a heck of a lot noisier!

I was born July 31 (same birthday as Harry Potter!) in Caracas, Venezuela, and lived in Asuncion, Paraguay; Miami, Florida; and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, before moving to New Jersey in high school, where I started doing theatre—mostly backstage work, because (a) it was fun, and (b) you got to hang out in the dark with cute boys.

(Er, I mean . . . because it was artistically fulfilling, yes.)

I graduated from Williams College in ’98 (go Ephs!) and I currently live in Boston with my husband, my perfect new baby, and my adorable yoodle Sunshine (what’s a yoodle? A puppy that’s three-quarters poodle and one-quarter Yorkshire terrier, of course!).

Much to my parents’ relief, I abandoned my theatrical aspirations after college for the far more stable and lucrative career of fiction writing. (<—ha ha! hilarious joke!)

My first two official books were beginning readers, part of Grosset & Dunlap’s “First Friends” series for kids learning to read. MEET MO AND ELLA is tough to find now, but FUN WITH MO AND ELLA should still be out there somewhere.

I also wrote a biography for 8- to 12-year-olds of the famous magician Harry Houdini, entitled WHO WAS HARRY HOUDINI?

And if you look me up on Amazon, you’ll find my name attached to all kinds of wacky projects, only some of which I can actually take any credit for:

KERMIT’S MIXED-UP VALENTINES (co-written with Emily Sollinger)

GLITTERING GALAXIES: A TRIP THROUGH THE STARS (comes with glitter tattoos!)

MONSTER PARTY (also with glitter tattoos!)

SILLY CREEPY CRAWLIES (with glitter tattoos of BUGS!)

And ok, yes, HIDE AND GO PEEP might have been me, too.

My first novel for teenagers was THIS MUST BE LOVE, which retells Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a modern-day high school, from the POV of the two heroines, Hermia and Helena.

Next up was the AVATARS trilogy, because I always wanted to write my own post-apocalyptic supernatural thriller, although I was a little surprised to discover my version has sinister flying dolphins in it.  Those books are Book One: SO THIS IS HOW IT ENDS, Book Two: SHADOW FALLING, and Book Three: KINGDOM OF TWILIGHT!

And now I'm writing all kinds of fun new projects like PET TROUBLE and SEEKERS, so check out my Books page (or my blog!) to find out more.  :-)

I love mail, so if you’d like, you can write to me via HarperCollins:

Tui Sutherland
HarperCollins Children’s Books – Author Mail 
10 East 53rd Street 
New York, NY 10022

or via Scholastic:

Tui Sutherland
c/o Scholastic Inc.
555 Broadway
New York, NY 10012-3999

I can’t guarantee I’ll write back right away, but I will try!