Ann Matthews Martin (born August 12, 1955) is an American children's author most well known for writing The Baby-Sitters Club series.
Early life
Ann Matthews Martin grew up in Princeton, New Jersey. Her mother, Edith, was a pre-school teacher and her father, Henry, was a cartoonist for The New Yorker and other publications. Her mother's ancestry can be traced back to the pilgrims who traveled on the Mayflower in 1620.
Martin developed an interest in writing from an early age. Before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. Martin loved creative writing in elementary school and discovered her passion for writing in second grade. She began writing short stories, and her fourth-grade teacher wrote on her student folder that she would make a wonderful writer because she spent so much of her free time writing in notebooks. Her favorite subjects in middle school and high school were English and French. Her least favorite subject was Math.
As a teen, Martin loved working with children and decided to become a teacher. She wanted to help children with disabilities, and she worked during the summer at the Eden Institute, a school for autistic children in her hometown.
After graduating from Princeton High School in 1973, Martin attended Smith College from 1973-1977. She studied early-childhood education and child psychology. Her senior thesis was on the use of children’s literature in the classroom. She lived in Gardiner House and wrote for Smith College newspaper, The Sophian. Describing her Smith education, Martin said “It was an environment of strong, independent women, both the students and the professors.†Her time at Smith influenced her identity as a feminist and inspired her to portray female characters who were like the women she knew in her own life.
Career
After graduating from Smith College, Martin taught in a split fourth and fifth-grade classroom at Plumfield School in Noroton, Connecticut. Her students, ages 8â€"13, struggled with learning disabilities including dyslexia and autism. Martin said that her work with special needs children influenced her writing about children.
After teaching, Martin decided to pursue publishing. She worked her way up from an editorial assistant to a senior editor, and she worked for several well-known children’s book publishers, including Pocket Books and Scholastic. She is now a full-time writer.
In 1983, she published her first book, Bummer Summer, which earned the Children’s Choice Award in 1985. She began writing The Baby-Sitters Club series in 1985 while working for Scholastic as a children’s book editor. After Martin wrote the first 35 novels in The Baby-Sitters Club series she has since concentrated on writing single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s. One of those novels, A Corner of the Universe, won a Newbery Honor in 2003. In 2010, Martin published a prequel to The Baby-Sitters Club series titled The Summer Before.
Martin finds the ideas for her books from many different sources; some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are about contemporary problems and struggles. All of her characters, including the members of The Baby-Sitters Club, are fictional, but many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes she names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
In 1990, Martin and her colleagues founded "The Lisa Libraries" to honor and memorialize their friend Lisa Novak. This non-profit organization distributes new books to children and establishes libraries in under-served areas. In the same year, Martin also founded the Ann M. Martin Foundation, which provides financial support for art, education, and literacy programs in addition to programs for abused and stray animals.
Personal life
After living in New York City for many years, Martin moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her cats, Gussie, Pippin, and Willie. Her dog Sadie passed away on October 7, 2013. Her hobbies include needlepoint, fostering cats, and gardening. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
Martin was in a relationship with author Laura Godwin while working on the Doll People books.
Works
Standalone novels
- Bummer Summer (1983)
- Inside Out (1984)
- Stage Fright (1984)
- Me and Katie (The Pest) (1985)
- Missing Since Monday (1986)
- With and Without You (1986)
- Just a Summer Romance (1987)
- Slam Book (1987)
- Yours Turly, Shirley (1988)
- Ma and Pa Dracula (1989)
- Belle Teal (2001)
- A Corner of the Universe (2002)
- Here Today (2005)
- On Christmas Eve (2006)
- Rain Reign (2014)
Novels and sequels
- Ten Kids, No Pets (1988)
- Eleven Kids, One Summer (1991)
- P.S. Longer Letter Later (1998) with Paula Danziger
- Snail Mail No More (1999) with Paula Danziger
- A Dog's Life: The Autobiography of a Stray (2005)
- Everything for a Dog (2009)
- Ten Rules for Living with My Sister (2011)
- Ten Good and Bad Things About My Life (So Far) (2012)
Series
- The Baby-Sitters Club series (1986â€"1990 & 2010)
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- Kristy`s Great Idea
- Claudia And The Phantom Phone Calls
- The Truth About Stacey
- Mary Anne Saves The Day
- Dawn And The Impossible Three
- Kristy's Big Day
- Claudia And Mean Janine
- Boy-Crazy Stacey
- The Ghost At Dawns House
- Logan Likes Mary Anne
- Kristy And The Snobs
- Claudia And The New Girl
- Good Bye Stacey, Good Bye
- Hello, Mallory
- Little Miss Stoneybrook... And Dawn
- Jessi's Secret Language
- Mary Anne's Bad-Luck Mystery
- Stacey's Mistake
- Claudia And The Bad Joke
- Kristy And The Walking Disaster
- Mallory And The Trouble With Twins
- Jessi Ramsey, Pet-Sitter
- Dawn On The Coast
- Kristy and the Mother's Day Surprise
- Mary Anne and the Search for Tigger
- Claudia and the Sad Good-bye
- Jessi and the Superbrat
- Welcome Back, Stacey!
- Mallory and the Mystery Diary
- Mary Anne and the Great Romance
- Dawn's Wicked Stepsister
- Kristy and the Secret of Susan
- Claudia and the Great Search
- Mary Anne and Too Many Boys
- Stacey and the Mystery of Stoneybrook
- The Summer Before
- Baby-Sitters Little Sister series (1988â€"2000)
- The Kids in Ms. Colman's Class series (1995â€"1998)
- Teacher's Pet (1995)
- Author Day (1996)
- Class Play (1996)
- Second Grade Baby (1996)
- The Snow War (1997)
- Twin Trouble (1997)
- Science Fair (1997)
- Summer School (1997)
- Halloween Parade (1997)
- Holiday Time (1997)
- Spelling Bee (1998)
- Baby Animal Zoo (1998)
- California Diaries series (1997â€"2000)
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- Dawn (1997)
- Sunny (1997)
- Maggie (1997)
- Amalia (1997)
- Ducky (1998)
- Sunny, Diary Two (1998)
- Dawn, Diary Two (1998)
- Maggie, Diary Two (1998)
- Amalia, Diary Two (1998)
- Ducky, Diary Two (1998)
- Dawn, Diary Three (1999)
- Sunny, Diary Three (1999)
- Maggie, Diary Three (1999)
- Amalia, Diary Three (2000)
- Ducky, Diary Three (2000)
- Main Street (2007â€"2011)
- Welcome to Camden Falls (2007)
- Needle and Thread (2007)
- 'Tis the Season (2007)
- Best Friends (2008)
- The Secret Book Club (2008)
- September Surprises (2008)
- Keeping Secrets (2009)
- Special Delivery (2009)
- Coming Apart (2010)
- Staying Together (2011)
- The Doll People series (2000â€"2008) with Laura Godwin and Brian Selznick
- The Doll People (2000)
- The Meanest Doll in the World (2003)
- The Runaway Dolls (2008)
- The Doll People Set Sail (2014)
- Family Tree (2013-2014)
- Better to Wish (2013)
- The Long Way Home (2013)
- Best Kept Secret (2014)
- Home Is the Place (2014)
Picture books
- Rachel Parker, Kindergarten Showoff (1992) with illustrations by Nancy Poydar
- Leo The Magnificat (1996) with illustrations by Emily Arnold McCully
Short stories
- 8 x 2 = Sweet Sixteen, a short story featuring Karen Brewer included in the children's anthology It's Great to Be Eight (2000)
- The Lost Art of Letter Writing, a short story included in the young adult anthology What You Wish For (2011)
Other works
- Because of Shoe and Other Dog Stories (edited) (2012)
References
External links
- Ann M. Martin at publisher Scholastic
- Ann M. Martin by Margaret Becker, 1993
- Ann M. Martin at Library of Congress Authorities, with 354 catalog records
- Ann M Martin Papers in the Mortimer Rare Book Room at Smith College
- Ann M. Martin Foundation
- The Lisa Libraries
