SCOTT WESTERFE

LDAn Author Study

EARLY DAYS• Born in Dallas, Texas May 5,

1963 Both parents were from

Texas

• Father was a computer

programmer

• Westerfeld graduated

from Vassar College in 1985

with a Bachelor of Arts in

Philosophy

• Early career as a composer

LIFE AS A WRITER

In the 1980s, Scott Westerfeld moved to New York, which inspired

his first book, Polymorph. He has written a total of eighteen novels;

five for adults and thirteen for young adults.

ABOUT THE BOOKS Many of Westerfeld’s young adult novels

are arranged into series, and he is most well-known for his Uglies series

Each of the books in this series has been a New York Times Bestseller

UGLIES

Uglies is set in a future world in which everyone has an operation when they turn sixteen, making them

supermodel beautiful. Big eyes, full lips, no one too fat or too skinny. You might think this is a good thing, but it’s not.

Especially if you’re one of the Smokies, a bunch of radical teens who’ve decided they want to keep their own faces.

PRETTIESThe follow up to Uglies in

which the main character, Tally, has

finally turned pretty. She struggles with an

unnamable something that makes everything seem not quite right.

She fights to regain the memories of her past, and to figure out who she is in time to save both the pretties AND

the uglies.

SPECIALSThe third book in the series focuses on the

elite group, the Specials. In Specials, Tally has become an

elite fighting machine, fully enhanced with

nanotechnology and super-fast reflexes, and

made to work as a Special Circumstances agent for the city that she fled. As in the first

two books, much of the story takes place with

characters whizzing through the air on

hoverboards, but Tally and her friends are in

for some harsh realities here.

EXTRASExtras is a companion to the first three

novels, and it is told from a different point of view. It's a few years after the end of Tally’s

story. The world is in a complete cultural renaissance,and it's all monitored on a

bazillion different cameras. The world is like a gigantic game of American Idol. Whoever

is getting the most buzz gets the most votes. Popularity rules.

LIST OF OTHER BOOKS

Polymorph (1997)

Fine Prey (1998)

Evolution's Darling (2000)

So Yesterday (2004)

The Risen Empire (2003)

The Killing of Worlds

(2003)

Midnighters series:

The Secret Hour (2004)

Touching Darkness

(2005)

Blue Noon (2006)

Peeps series:

Peeps

The Last Days

Leviathan

series:

Leviathan (2009)

Behemoth

(2010)

Goliath (2011)

The Manual of

Aeronautics

(2012)

AWARDS Evolution's Darling was a New York Times

Notable Book (2000), and won a Special Citation for the 2000 Philip K. Dick Award.

So Yesterday won a Victorian Premier's Award The Secret Hour won an Aurealis Award. Peeps and Uglies were both named as "Best

Books for Young Adults" 2006 by the American Library Association

Behemoth won a 2010 Locus Award for Best Young Adult Fiction

Leviathan was nominated for an ORCA (Oregon Reader's Choice Award) in the intermediate division

REFERENCES

www.scottwesterfeld.comwww.locusmag.com/2006/Issues/05Westerfeld.html