AVI

Despite a term-paper approach, Markham (Lois Lowry, 1995), has produced a surprisingly involving and serviceable biography of a prolific and much-honored author. The book is inclusive, covering Avi's comfortable Brooklyn childhood with his twin sister Emily and older brother, Henry, relations with his parents and extended family, clues to his ``real'' name (its coy concealment from readers seems more self- indulgent and patronizing than amusing), and early writing despite his long struggle with dysgraphia. His college life, first and second marriages, children and stepchild, and careers as a librarian and teacher before achieving economic stability as a writer are here, enlivened by quotes from Avi and the linking of real events to fictional ones in his books. In the last chapters Markham integrates plot summaries of some of Avi's books with reiterations (almost verbatim) of his personal history, but this is still a notch above most curriculum-driven biographies, sure to send readers back to Avi's many works. (b&w photos, not seen, chronology, bibliography) (Biography. 10+)