Best Children's Book Author, 1999

Louis Sachar

Reputed author of the Wayside School and Marvin Redpost series of children's books, this Austin writer has fans – young and not so young – across the globe. His book Holes won the prestigious Newbery Medal in 1999. The story that struck gold for Sachar is about a boy wrongly convicted of a crime and sentenced to digging a new hole every day under the hot Texas sun.