Jordan Sonnenblick

About Jordan Sonnenblick

Jordan Sonnenblick was born on July 4, 1969, in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and grew up in Staten Island, New York. He is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School (class of 1987) and the University of Pennsylvania. He now lives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with his family.

From the Classroom to the Page

Before writing full-time, Sonnenblick spent years in education. He taught 5th grade in Houston, Texas, then moved to New Jersey, where he taught 8th grade English at middle schools in Hackettstown and Phillipsburg for eleven years.

It was in that classroom—watching his students face real crises—that he found the story he needed to tell. His debut novel, Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie (2004), was inspired by one of his students whose younger brother was diagnosed with cancer. The novel follows thirteen-year-old Steven, a passionate drummer whose family is upended when his five-year-old brother Jeffrey is diagnosed with leukemia. Sonnenblick's instinct to find humor inside genuine grief proved to be his signature, earning him a devoted readership and a career.

Writing Style and Themes

Sonnenblick's novels are known for balancing serious subject matter with a light touch. His books deal with illness, death, addiction, family instability, and identity—but they arrive with a warmth and comedy that makes them accessible to reluctant readers and kids in crisis alike. Zen and the Art of Faking It (2007) follows a perpetual new kid who reinvents himself with a Buddhist persona, only to find that the person he invented might be who he actually is.

He has authored more than a dozen books published by Scholastic, and he regularly visits schools across the United States—and sometimes internationally—to speak with students about reading, writing, and his own life.