Peg Kehret facts for kids

Peg Kehret (born Margaret Ann Schulze on November 11, 1936) is an American author. She mostly writes books for young people between the ages of 10 and 15. When she was 12, Peg got very sick with polio. After she recovered, she became a successful writer. She has won more than 50 awards for her books!

Peg Kehret's Life Story

Margaret Ann Schulze was born on November 11, 1936, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. In 1949, when she was 12 years old, she caught polio. This was a very serious illness that made her paralyzed from the neck down. She had to stay in the hospital for nine months. This experience changed her life. She wrote about it in her 1996 memoir, Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio.

Luckily, Peg made a full recovery. She later graduated from Austin High School. Then she went to the University of Minnesota for a year. In 1955, she married Carl Kehret. They moved to California and adopted two children, Bob and Anne.

In 1970, the Kehrets moved to Washington. Carl passed away in 2004. Peg has four grandchildren: Brett, Chelsea, Eric, and Mark. She also has a great-grandson named Seth. Peg currently lives near Mt. Rainier National Park.

For many years, Peg visited schools across the country. She would spend six weeks each spring and fall meeting students. She had to stop these visits because of health issues from her past polio. Besides being a writer, Peg has spent much of her life helping animals. She volunteered at the Seattle humane society for over 25 years. This work inspired many of her stories. After her husband died, she kept fostering cats. She also wrote a "Pet of the Month" column for her local newspaper.

Peg Kehret's Writing Career

Before Peg Kehret started writing books for kids, she wrote plays. She also wrote radio commercials and magazine stories. She decided to write for children because she believes it's important. She thinks children's books can help undo bad effects from movies and video games. Instead, her books teach kids to be kind and understanding. She includes character growth and moral choices in her stories. She has written 46 books for middle school students. This includes four children's drama books.

Her books fit into different groups. These include memoirs, natural disaster stories, animal stories, and mystery adventures. One of her most famous memoirs is Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio. In this book, she shares all about her polio diagnosis and treatment. Her natural disaster novels include Escaping the Giant Wave and Earthquake Terror. These fictional stories teach children about the dangers of natural disasters. Books inspired by her animal rescue work include Saving Lilly and her Pete The Cat series. Some of Peg's most popular novels are Stolen Children, Abduction!, and Runaway Twin. She also wrote a series called Frightmares, which has eight books.

Awards and Recognition for Peg Kehret

Peg Kehret's books are very popular with young readers. They have also received many awards. Some of her honors include the Pen Center West Award in Children's Literature. She also won the Golden Kite Award. This award is from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Children in 29 states have given her books their Children's Choice Awards. She also won the Henry Bergh Award from the ASPCA. Many of her books have been chosen by the American Library Association. They recommend them for readers who might not enjoy reading as much. Overall, her books have won more than 50 state young reader awards.

Her polio memoir, Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio, received great reviews. It won the 1998 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award. This award is chosen by Vermont schoolchildren. It also won the 1999 Mark Twain Readers Award. This award is chosen by Missouri schoolchildren in grades 4 to 6. Four of her books won the Mark Twain Readers Award between 1999 and 2012. These were Abduction!, Runaway Twin, Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio, and Stolen Children.

The Children’s Choices project lets 10,000 schoolchildren vote on new books they liked. This project is run by the International Reading Association and The Children’s Book Council. In 2001, over 700 books were reviewed. The 99 books with the most votes became the Children’s Choices for 2001. One of these was Don’t Tell Anyone by Peg Kehret.

In 2010, she received the Charlotte Award. This award is sponsored by the New York State Reading Association. She won it for her book Stolen Children.

Selected Works

Fiction

• Deadly Stranger (1987)
• Nightmare Mountain (1989)
• Sisters, Long Ago (1990)
• Cages (1991)
• Night of Fear (1994)
• The Richest Kids in Town (1994)
• Earthquake Terror (1996)
• Searching for Candlestick Park (1997)
• The Secret Journey (1999)
• I'm Not Who You Think I Am (1999)
• My Brother Made Me Do It (2000)
• Don't Tell Anyone (2000)
• Saving Lilly (2001)
• Escaping the Giant Wave (2003)
• Abduction! (2006)
• The Ghost's Grave (2005)
• Stolen Children (2008)
• Runaway Twin (2009)
• Ghost Dog Secrets (2010)
• Dangerous Deception (2014)

Drama

• Let Him Sleep 'Till It's Time for His Funeral (1976)
• Spirit! (1979)
• Winning Monologues for Young Actors (1986)
• Encore!: More Winning Monologues for Young Actors (1988)
• Acting Natural (1991)
• Tell It Like It Is: Fifty Monologues for Talented Teens (2007)

Nonfiction

• Vows of Love and Marriage (1980)
• Refinishing and Restoring Your Piano (1985)
• Wedding Vows: How to Express Your Love in Your Own Words (1989)
• Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio (1996)
• Shelter Dogs: Amazing Stories of Adopted Strays (1999)
• Five Pages A Day: A Writer's Journey (2002)
• Animals Welcome: A Life of Reading, Writing, and Rescue (2012)