Literature
Katherine Applegate
born 1956 · children's and young-adult author
Newbery Medal–winning author of The One and Only Ivan and creator of the Animorphs series, born in Ann Arbor on the western edge of the Detroit metropolitan region.
- Born
Ann Arbor, Michigan
age 69- Birth name
- Katherine Alice Applegate
- Also known as
- K. A. Applegate
- Field
- Literature
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Applegate was born in Ann Arbor in 1956. Her tie to the Detroit region is one of birth: Ann Arbor, home of the University of Michigan, belongs to the wider Detroit–Ann Arbor metropolitan area, but her career unfolded elsewhere. Writing first as K. A. Applegate, she co-created the Animorphs series (1996–2001), about teenagers who can turn into animals, which sold millions of copies and became a television show. She later turned to middle-grade novels and won the 2013 Newbery Medal for The One and Only Ivan, the story of a captive gorilla, which Disney filmed in 2020.
Highlights
- Newbery Medal (2013) for The One and Only Ivan
- Creator, with Michael Grant, of the Animorphs series
- Home of the Brave, an award-winning verse novel about a refugee boy
- Born in Ann Arbor, 1956