"Henry has become a leading light in YA mystery." - Booklist
"April Henry’s crime dramas are consistently smart and satisfying.” - Kirkus
"A must-have for YA mystery-thriller collections." - School Library Journal
"April Henry’s crime dramas are consistently smart and satisfying.” - Kirkus
"A must-have for YA mystery-thriller collections." - School Library Journal
I kill people, but only on paperWelcome to my little corner of the Internet. I'm a New York Times bestselling author who loves kung fu, Brazilian jujitsu, and all things salty.
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I love to do school visits
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School visits are a great way to get students interested in reading and writing.
I love to visit schools and share with students the joys of reading, writing, and research. I also talk about the vital importance of tenacity. To learn more, check out my school visit page. I am excited to announce that I am now booking all my speaking engagements through TheBookingBiz.com. And the good folks at my publisher have put together a teacher's guide for my books (which can be used with Common Core state standards). You can get it here. |
Greater Rochester Teen Book Festival
Known by most authors simply as "Rochester," this is an amazing event with over 2,000 teens in attendance. It was bittersweet this year, because its founder, Stephanie Curcio Squicciarini, died this spring. While I was at the event, I even met a girl, Savannah T., who the same exact name as the main character in The White Van, which will come out August 2019.
School visits in Mt. Vernon and The Quad Cities, Iowa
School visits in St. Charles, Missouri and Missouri Association of School Librarians conference
School visits in New Hampshire
4th strip in BJJ!
You have no idea how PROUD I am of this fourth stripe in Brazilian jiujitsu. It literally takes me more time to get a stripe than it does to write a book. It is so much work, especially since my partners are usually 20-40 years younger than me. And most of them are guys, which often means they weigh more and always means they have more muscles.
I have never been a natural athlete. PE was the only reason I didn't graduate with a 4.0 in high school. (Just say the words "round robin tennis" or "creative movement" to make me start feeling sick.) But a kickboxing class I took years ago led to kajukenbo. And kanjukenbo led to kung fu, which lead to BJJ (which is like wrestling, plus joint locks and chokes).
BJJ is the funnest, hardest thing I do.
I have never been a natural athlete. PE was the only reason I didn't graduate with a 4.0 in high school. (Just say the words "round robin tennis" or "creative movement" to make me start feeling sick.) But a kickboxing class I took years ago led to kajukenbo. And kanjukenbo led to kung fu, which lead to BJJ (which is like wrestling, plus joint locks and chokes).
BJJ is the funnest, hardest thing I do.
Battle of the Books in Helena, Alabama and School visits in Le Mars, Iowa
School visits in Long Island and Houston
School visits in Missouri City, Texas
School visits in Garden City, Kansas
This was a whirlwind trip to Garden City, Kansas, my first trip ever to the state. After my schools visits, the librarian took me to the town's museum. The exhibits were an eclectic mix that included a crime room (the events described in In Cold Blood took place nearby) and a giant hairball recovered from a cow. But what was really amazing was that the librarian bought a book for every single student. I've done many school visits and never had that happen before.
School visits in Katy, Texas
Ride Along with Portland Police
For a new book I'm researching, I spent seven hours with a cop working in downtown Portland and the Pearl District.
Things I learned on my ride along:
Things I learned on my ride along:
- - It’s not unusual to get dispatched to three suicide calls in a single day.
- - There are a lot of drug addicts. We saw so many people passed out or so high that they couldn’t even respond to a question. One couple was pawing thorough the grass in Tom McCall park, either looking for drugs they had dropped or just looking for something that existed only in their imagination.
- - Hipster or Addict? If you can’t tell if guys with a bushy beard and layers of antique-looking clothing is a hipster or addict, look at the shoes. Hipsters have nice-looking, well-maintained shoes.
- - Most addicts are pretty open about using. It’s either heroin or meth, and lately, it might be both.
- - Heroin dealers often keep their product store in tied off balloons in a Big Gulp cup. If they see a cop, they’ll start chugging, swallowing all the balloons.
- - A rumor has it that car air fresheners confuse drug sniffing dogs, so a beat-up car with an air freshener gets a second look and its plates run.
- - A lot of a cop’s job is social work.
- - You can’t let down your guard. If you pull over to fill out a form online, people will come up to your car. Not all of them with good intent.
- It’s a hard job physically. You sit most of the time. We got some sandwiches for lunch, but ended up going out on calls for another 90 minutes. Then when we sat for lunch, we only got about 15 minutes before we got called out again.
- - It’s a hard job mentally. Most of the people we dealt with were off - on drugs, mentally ill, or showing signs of dementia. Twice we dealt with people who were passed out and appeared to be dead. The person I rode with used to take different routes home to avoid passing by locations where a person died. Now there are no new routes left to take.
Knife-Fighting class (AKA the things I do for research!)
Want a personalized, signed book?
Want a signed, personalized copy of one of my books? Contact my neighborhood book store, Annie Bloom's Books at 503-246-0053, and tell them what you want - signature only or a personalized greeting to a particular person. They will contact me and I will come in to sign them.
Best NOte Ever from a Middle School Teacher
Just wanted to let you know for a 3rd year in a row you are making my life easy – and creating a bunch of new readers. I am still lucky enough to teach an advanced reading class along with my Intensive class and across the board your books are the motivators. Here is one of the book projects done by one of my 7th graders! I can’t keep enough copies of your books on my shelf. |
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The Girl I Used to Be receives more honors
The Girl I Used to Be has been named:
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