Paul Kropp has been writing books for young people since 1977, when he finally gave up trying to be a poet. "I was a few hundred years too late to become a metaphysical poet," he says. "But I learned that I could write interesting novels for teenagers."

Kropp began writing novels while teaching at a vocational secondary school in Hamilton, Ontario. His students weren't interested in most of the books that were available at the time, so Kropp wrote a book especially for them - Burn Out, the first book in Series Canada (Prentice Hall Canada, EMC U.S.) At the same time, he began working on his first young-adult novel, Wilted (Dell). Since then he has written more than fifty books - some for teens, some for reluctant readers, some for parents and some for younger children.

Paul Kropp was born on February 22, 1948 in Buffalo, New York, "the largest city in the world with the same name as an animal." As a young child, he frequently dressed in cowboy clothes (see photo) after his idols Hopalong Cassidy and the Lone Ranger. In primary school, he wanted to be a fireman but discovered that his fear of heights made him ill-suited for the job. He went to school at P.S. 81 (with Wolf Blitzer, of CNN fame) and then Hutchinson-Central Technical High School. On graduation in 1966, he toured Europe on a bicycle and then went off to Columbia University in New York City. From Columbia he received a B.A. degree, some abstruse knowledge of obscure 17th century poets, and a fondness for the piano music of Muzio Clementi. He came to Canada in 1970, not to avoid the draft, but to take an M.A. degree in 17th century English poetry at the University of Western Ontario. After graduation, he found few positions for a metaphysical poet. With a young family to support, he decided to get his teacher's certification at Althouse College. He later taught high school English in Burlington, Hamilton and Oakville before leaving the profession to pursue writing full-time in 1994.

For many years, Paul Kropp wrote and continued to teach in Hamilton, Ontario. He lived in a large Victorian house near Gage Park with his first wife and their three children: Jason (37), Justin (35) and Alexander (27). He used his own kids as models for the characters in the Scholastic novels Cottage Crazy and Ski Stooges. "But Justin is really much smarter than the character in the book," he points out. Justin, pictured to the left, is now an engineer for Toyota Canada, flying frequently between Japan and the Toyota plant in Cambridge, Ontario. Alex, just a baby in the novels, pictured below, is a support analyst for RIM, the company that created the Blackberry.

These days, Paul Kropp spends much of his time speaking at conferences about reading and educational issues. He is both editor and lead author for High Interest Publishing, a company that produces top-notch materials for reluctant readers.

In his spare time, Kropp plays golf, tennis and croquet. Each September, he trains with Richard Bradshaw, the conductor of the Canadian Opera Company, so they can both survive the Cabbagetown Mini-Marathon race. In 1999, for the first time in 30 years, Kropp began studying piano again. "The Chopin and Brahms are getting better, but Clementi remains a challenge." He and his wife are working on a piano four-hands version of Beethoven's fifth symphony. At the current rate of progress, it will be ready for concert performance in 2009. Or 2010. Progress has been slow - that last movement is very long and very fast.