Background
Mr. Klass was born in Vermont, United States, on March 8, 1960. He is a son of Morton (an anthropology professor) and Sheila (a writer and English professor; maiden name, Solomon) Klass.
(Moving, wholly involving, original, and emotionally true,...)
Moving, wholly involving, original, and emotionally true, You Don't Know Me is a multilayered young adult novel that presents a winning portrait of an understandably angst-ridden adolescent. John ("My father named me after a toilet!") wrestles with the certainty that no one really knows him -- not in his miserable home, and certainly not at school. It's true that no one can guess his hidden thoughts, which are hilarious, razor-sharp observations about lust, love, tubas, algebra, everything. And then there's his home: his father ran off years ago, so he's being raised by his mother, who works long hours, and by her boyfriend, whom John calls "the man who is not and never will be my father." This man is his enemy, an abusive disciplinarian who seems to want to kill John and, in a horrible final confrontation, nearly succeeds.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312653026/?tag=2022091-20
(Discovering a beautiful blue butterfly, John is forced to...)
Discovering a beautiful blue butterfly, John is forced to choose between an important cause and his own townspeople when he learns that the butterfly is unique in all the world and that the local mill must be closed in order to save it. Reprint.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0590466895/?tag=2022091-20
(As the only white basketball player on the American "Drea...)
As the only white basketball player on the American "Dream Team," Jimmy Doyle makes some discoveries about racism, prejudice, and politics when the team plays in an international tournament. Reprint.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0590485911/?tag=2022091-20
(His mother is not his mother. His father is not his fathe...)
His mother is not his mother. His father is not his father. But if Jack hadn't broken the high school rushing record that night, he never would have known and nothing would have changed. He'd just be going out for pizza, playing football, trying yet again to score with his girlfriend, P.J. But he did break the record. He appeared on the news. And now they've found him. Jack plunges into a space-time–bending game of survival with no way out. The rules are shrouded in secrets. But one thing he learns fast: Trust no one. After centuries of abuse, the earth is dying, and it's up to Jack to reverse the decline before the Turning Point, when nothing will ever be the same again. Beaten into shape by a ninja babe and a huge telepathic man's best friend, Jack hurtles across the ocean to save the future from the present and to solve the mystery of his purpose. Exactly who, or what, is Firestorm, and what does it have to do with Jack? And what comes next when everything you have ever known turns out to be wrong? In the first book of the Caretaker Trilogy, readers are taken on an electrifying, fast-paced adventure of hunting truth, all in the name of staying alive.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312380186/?tag=2022091-20
(In Firestorm, the first book of the Caretaker Trilogy, se...)
In Firestorm, the first book of the Caretaker Trilogy, seventeen-year-old Jack Danielson saved the world’s oceans, but at great personal cost – his parents were killed and everything he knew and believed in was turned upside down. Now Jack has come home to see P.J., his girlfriend and sole remaining touchstone. But she’s missing, and blame falls on Jack. On the run with Gisco, his crafty canine sidekick, Jack is literally caught up in a whirlwind as he travels to the heart of darkness to rescue P.J. – a journey that will bring him face-to-face with the father of his old nemesis, the colonel, aka the Dark Lord from the future. Jack’s quest becomes all the more complicated as he discovers that the only person who can stop the Dark Lord is another time traveler, the wizard Kidah, who has disappeared in the present. Book 2 of the Caretaker Trilogy mixes heart-racing adventure with an urgent ecological warning about the fragility of the world’s rain forests and the importance of respect for indigenous peoples. Readers will be drawn into the vortex of the quest—whether or not they’re familiar with Book 1. In Firestorm, the first book of the Caretaker Trilogy, seventeen-year-old Jack Danielson saved the world’s oceans, but at great personal cost – his parents were killed and everything he knew and believed in was turned upside down. Now Jack has come home to see P.J., his girlfriend and sole remaining touchstone. But she’s missing, and blame falls on Jack. On the run with Gisco, his crafty canine sidekick, Jack is literally caught up in a whirlwind as he travels to the heart of darkness to rescue P.J. – a journey that will bring him face-to-face with the father of his old nemesis, the colonel, aka the Dark Lord from the future. Jack’s quest becomes all the more complicated as he discovers that the only person who can stop the Dark Lord is another time traveler, the wizard Kidah, who has disappeared in the present. Book 2 of the Caretaker Trilogy mixes heart-racing adventure with an urgent ecological warning about the fragility of the world’s rain forests and the importance of respect for indigenous peoples. Readers will be drawn into the vortex of the quest—whether or not they’re familiar with Book 1. In Firestorm, the first book of the Caretaker Trilogy, seventeen-year-old Jack Danielson saved the world’s oceans, but at great personal cost – his parents were killed and everything he knew and believed in was turned upside down. Now Jack has come home to see P.J., his girlfriend and sole remaining touchstone. But she’s missing, and blame falls on Jack. On the run with Gisco, his crafty canine sidekick, Jack is literally caught up in a whirlwind as he travels to the heart of darkness to rescue P.J. – a journey that will bring him face-to-face with the father of his old nemesis, the colonel, aka the Dark Lord from the future. Jack’s quest becomes all the more complicated as he discovers that the only person who can stop the Dark Lord is another time traveler, the wizard Kidah, who has disappeared in the present. Book 2 of the Caretaker Trilogy mixes heart-racing adventure with an urgent ecological warning about the fragility of the world’s rain forests and the importance of respect for indigenous peoples. Readers will be drawn into the vortex of the quest—whether or not they’re familiar with Book 1.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374323089/?tag=2022091-20
(Kendall is football town, and Jerry Downing is the high s...)
Kendall is football town, and Jerry Downing is the high school's star quarterback, working to redeem himself after he nearly killed a girl in a drunk driving accident last year. Carla Jenson, lead reporter for the school newspaper's sports section, has recruited Jerry to co-author a blog chronicling the season from each of their perspectives. When Jerry's best friend on the team takes a hit too hard and gets hurt, Carla wonders publicly if injury in the game comes at too high a cost in a player's life―but not everyone in Kendall wants to hear it. . . . David Klass and Perri Klass's Second Impact is an action-packed story that will resonate with readers who have been following recent news stories about football injuries.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250044367/?tag=2022091-20
(Freshman Daniel Pratzer gets a chance to prove himself wh...)
Freshman Daniel Pratzer gets a chance to prove himself when the chess team invites him and his father to a weekend-long parent-child tournament. Daniel, thinking that his father is a novice, can't understand why his teammates want so badly for them to participate. Then he finds out the truth: as a teen, his father was one of the most promising young players in America, but the pressures of the game pushed him too far, and he had to give up chess to save his own life and sanity. Now, thirty years later, Mr. Pratzer returns to the game to face down an old competitor and the same dark demons that lurk in the corners of a mind stretched by the demands of the game. Daniel was looking for acceptance—but the secrets he uncovers about his father will force him to make some surprising moves himself, in Grandmaster by David Klass.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EMSY4K8/?tag=2022091-20
(In Timelock, the thrilling finale to the Caretaker Trilog...)
In Timelock, the thrilling finale to the Caretaker Trilogy, the end of life as we know it has arrived, and history will be made -- or lost -- at the hands of one young hero. Jack Danielson has spent the last year saving the oceans and the Amazon, attempting to fulfill a prophecy that was written before his birth. Now he's more than ready to get back to life as a typical teenager and spend some quality time with his girlfriend, P.J. Too bad the world has other plans. Wrenched away once more from those he knows and loves, Jack is thrust through time to the fiery deserts of the future and the frozen tundra of the Arctic, battling cyborgs, zombie warlocks, and scorpions the size of tanks. At least he has Gisco -- everyone's favorite surly telepathic canine -- to keep him company, not to mention the Ninja Babe, Eko. And he will finally be reunited with the parents who abandoned him so long ago, in order that he might save their dying planet. But it isn't only a race to save Earth. As the clock ticks down before the final confrontation with the dreaded Dark Lord, Jack must decide once and for all who he really is -- prince of the future or humble human of the present -- and choose between the two women who love him.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312608632/?tag=2022091-20
(When his older brother Troy is released from prison after...)
When his older brother Troy is released from prison after only six years because of a technicality, seventeen-year-old Jeff's family secret is revealed, causing upheaval in his home, school, and love life. Reprint.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060887001/?tag=2022091-20
(What makes an average American high school suddenly becom...)
What makes an average American high school suddenly become violent? As Joe Brickman heads into the fall of his senior year, he's looking forward to the soccer season, when he will captain the Lawndale team. And surely this will be the year when he and his neighbor Kristine stop teasing each other and begin dating. But scary, unpredictable things start happening at Lawndale High. It's hard to tell what touches off the storm. Is it the arrival of Antonio Silva, a.k.a. the Phenom, a Brazilian soccer star who transforms the Lawndale Braves into a contender, and in doing so clashes with football players? Is it the shake-up of the social order in the school, when the Phenom starts dating Kris, and soccer becomes the "in" sport? Is it the brutal humiliation of Joe's best friend, Ed "the Mouse" McBean, and is Ed planning on taking some dark revenge on the entire school? Perhaps it's all of these new twists, and something older. As violence and danger escalate and school officials clamp down with zero tolerance, Joe finds himself searching for the courage to break free from the forces that threaten to take him down with the home of the Braves. In his powerful and timely new novel, David Klass dramatizes the many ways in which past violence returns to haunt the present. What makes an average American high school suddenly become violent? As Joe Brickman heads into the fall of his senior year, he's looking forward to the soccer season, when he will captain the Lawndale team. And surely this will be the year when he and his neighbor Kristine stop teasing each other and begin dating. But scary, unpredictable things start happening at Lawndale High. It's hard to tell what touches off the storm. Is it the arrival of Antonio Silva, a.k.a. the Phenom, a Brazilian soccer star who transforms the Lawndale Braves into a contender, and in doing so clashes with football players? Is it the shake-up of the social order in the school, when the Phenom starts dating Kris, and soccer becomes the "in" sport? Is it the brutal humiliation of Joe's best friend, Ed "the Mouse" McBean, and is Ed planning on taking some dark revenge on the entire school? Perhaps it's all of these new twists, and something older. As violence and danger escalate and school officials clamp down with zero tolerance, Joe finds himself searching for the courage to break free from the forces that threaten to take him down with the home of the Braves. In his powerful and timely new novel, David Klass dramatizes the many ways in which past violence returns to haunt the present.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374399638/?tag=2022091-20
(Champion high school wrestler Ron Woods faces a soul-sear...)
Champion high school wrestler Ron Woods faces a soul-searching season when he refuses to retake a mandatory drug test he has failed. This decision affects every area of his life, including his feelings about his father, who died in Vietnam, and his first tentative romance.High school wrestler Ron Woods faces a soul-searching season when he refuses to retake a drug test he has failed. The decision affects every area of his life, including his feelings about his father, who died in Vietnam, and his first romance
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525672680/?tag=2022091-20
(Seventeen-year-old Tony, a soccer player whose parents ar...)
Seventeen-year-old Tony, a soccer player whose parents are divorcing, goes to Atami, Japan, to spend four-and-a-half months with a Japanese family.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525671900/?tag=2022091-20
Mr. Klass was born in Vermont, United States, on March 8, 1960. He is a son of Morton (an anthropology professor) and Sheila (a writer and English professor; maiden name, Solomon) Klass.
David Klass attended Leonia High School. He received his Bachelor of Arts in History from Yale University in 1982 and later graduated from USC School of Cinema-Television (1989).
Mr. Klass’s writing career began with the novel The Atami Dragons, inspired by his experiences as an English teacher in Japan. His 1994 book California Blue gathered very positive reviews for its quiet yet compelling treatment of environmental issues. In 2001 David Klass published You don’t know me. The book has been published in 18 languages, was named an ALA Best Book For Young Adults, and continues to be popular with young adult audiences in the United States and internationally.
He joined the board of directors of Save Our Youth and later PEN Center USA West.
David Klass has also written more than 40 Hollywood screenplays, including the adaptation of James Patterson's Kiss the Girls for the movie version starring Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd. Mr. Klass wrote the screenplay for the thriller Desperate Measures starring Michael Keaton and Andy García, which was based on his original idea.
(Discovering a beautiful blue butterfly, John is forced to...)
(In Firestorm, the first book of the Caretaker Trilogy, se...)
(What makes an average American high school suddenly becom...)
(When his older brother Troy is released from prison after...)
(Moving, wholly involving, original, and emotionally true,...)
(As the only white basketball player on the American "Drea...)
(After the death of Jerry's mother, his father takes the f...)
(Kendall is football town, and Jerry Downing is the high s...)
(In Timelock, the thrilling finale to the Caretaker Trilog...)
(Ketchvar III's mission is simple: travel to Planet Earth,...)
(High-school senior Liz Wheaton lands a big movie role and...)
(Seventeen-year-old Tony, a soccer player whose parents ar...)
(Freshman Daniel Pratzer gets a chance to prove himself wh...)
(Champion high school wrestler Ron Woods faces a soul-sear...)
(His mother is not his mother. His father is not his fathe...)
Quotations: "I live in Los Angeles and spend a lot of time writing action movies for Hollywood. They can be fun, and each of them present unique structural challenges, but I don’t get that many chances to write something that is emotionally honest, like California Blue. It was truly a pleasure to write this novel, and I hope people enjoy it."
