Award-Winning Young Adult and Mid-Grade Novelist & Poet
It’s two days before Christmas and a quiet Rhode Island town is about to be visited by a number of unexpected guests, among them a pair of very different Krampuses, not to mention a few Beasties. Are they there to protect Christoph, or to exact revenge with the aid of a heartless and monstrous Wolf? Read More ...
Peter Johnson has long been acclaimed by such poets as Russell Edson and Charles Simic as one of the masters of the prose poem. In his new book, Old Man Howling at the Moon, he continues his exploration of the genre, exhibiting his usual comic touch. Johnson calls these new poems “complaints” and traces his Read More ...
This heartfelt story about school, friendship, and family is perfect for readers who can’t get enough of such middle grade favorites as Jerry Spinelli and Gary D. Schmidt. From acclaimed author Peter Johnson, The Life and Times of Benny Alvarez is a novel that will make you laugh, cry, and appreciate your family all the Read More ...
“Miracles & Mortifications is a poet’s atlas, and it happens to be exactly the right tour guide, for these poems are comic, sexual, and endlessly inventive. They are poems of appreciation and discovery; poems that prove there is such a thing as the American prose poem.” — Russell Edson Order Now From Amazon (Click Logo Read More ...
An unnamed sixteen-year-old is the narrator of this impressionistic and fragmented story of two brothers who learn that the disappearance of their father is only the tip of his mystery and only a sliver of what really happened. HONORS and AWARDS: Best New Books for the Classroom — Book Links Books for the Teen Age Read More ...
For fans of Jerry Spinelli’s Maniac Magee, Gary D. Schmidt’s The Wednesday Wars, and Jack Gantos’s Joey Pigza Books comes a hilarious and poignant slice-of-life novel from critically acclaimed author and poet Peter Johnson. When an author comes to speak to his class in a rundown area of Providence, Houdini decides to make money by Read More ...
“Johnson’s supremely quirky mind enables him to combine the strange and familiar, the most urgent bursts of lyricism with disarmingly unemotional statements. He leaves the reader with a new appreciation of a genre that, perhaps more than any other genre, makes the ordinary extraordinary.” — Michel Delville, The American Prose Poem “Peter Johnson writes with Read More ...
The fruits of my labor, the results of a lifetime spent writing across different forms and for different audiences.
The following young adult novels are intended for young adult or adult readers. Click on their covers for reviews and possible teacher guides.
The following mid-grade novels are intended for middle grade and above readers. Click on their covers for reviews and possible teacher guides.
The following books of prose poetry and short fiction are intended for young adult or adult readers.
Great webmaster, Matt Bechtel, created this perfect trailer for The Night Before Krampus. Check it out: https://youtu.be/OEwTV0Xq0S8
Just in time for the holiday season (although trust me, this is not quite the type of Christmas story you’re used to reading this time of year)! I’m thrilled to announce that my new novel, The Night Before Krampus, is now available in digital and print editions via Amazon.com. For more information and to order, Read More …
Went to a great luncheon today where Out of Eden received an award. I have fond memories of all the students and writers I’ve met through ASTAL over the years, and Jean Brown should be given a huge raise for all of the work she’s done, founding the organization and keeping it going. Also, I Read More …
About seventy middle graders read The Life and Times of Benny Alvarez at DeLasalle Middle School. At my visit I was asked the most incredible questions, so many of them I could have stayed there all day. Thanks to everyone who organized it, and I hope to be back again next year.
Over 300 kids ends up reading The Life and Times of Benny Alvarez. One of the best school visits I’ve ever had. The questions were not only great but the students wrote their own object poems, inspired by Benny, and I got to be one of the judges. Thanks to everyone who made the event Read More …