In the year 1970, Edward Irving Wortis, age 33, completed his first book: Things That Sometimes Happen. He decided to write his book under a pen name. He chose Avi as his pen name because his twin sister had called him Avi ever since he could remember. One of the books he wrote under his pen name was the one that I read: Crispin, cross of lead. Crispin won the Newberry medal award. Crispin is a three part trilogy continued in Crispin: at the Edge of the World and concluded in Crispin: the End of Time. Avi has also won another Newberry award for The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.

Avi was born December 23, 1937, in Brooklyn, New York. Avi wasn’t considered the genius of the family because he was born with Dysgraphia causing him to repeatedly misspell words. Instead his brother was considered the genius, he wasn’t really. At first Avi didn’t think about writing as a job instead he wanted to design planes. But when he flunked out of a science high school, he instead attempted at writing. He finds that writing is his god given talent and with the help of a writing tutor he focuses on becoming a writer. Even though he struggled with his Dysgraphia he achieved his goal of becoming a writer. So far he has written more than 60 books under his pen name, Avi. He currently lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife Linda Cruise Wright.

I really enjoyed Crispin, Cross of Lead. I also look forward to reading the sequel and the last book in the trilogy. I also think that if you choose to read this book you will enjoy reading Crispin as much as I did when I read it. To the whole world he is simply known as Avi, one of the greatest story writers of our time.