John Corey Whaley

John Corey Whaley (born January 19, 1984) is an American author of contemporary realistic novels for young adults. His debut, Where Things Come Back, was published by Atheneum Books in 2011 and Whaley won the Printz Award from the American Library Association in 2012, recognizing it as the year's "best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit." In 2011 the National Book Foundation named him a 5 under 35 honoree. His second novel, Noggin, was a finalist for the 2014 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. 2Early life Whaley was born on January 19, 1984. He grew up in Springhill, Louisiana and graduated from Springhill High School in 2002. He then moved to Ruston, Louisiana, to attend college. After college, he taught public middle and high school English for five years in Louisiana before becoming a full-time author. 2Education Whaley holds a B.A. in English and an M.A.T. in Secondary English Education from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana. 2Works 3Where Things Come Back Just when seventeen-year-old Cullen Witter thinks he understands everything about his small and painfully dull Arkansas town, his knowledge all disappears. In the summer before Cullen’s senior year, a nominally-depressed birdwatcher named John Barling tries to validate the spotting of a species of woodpecker thought to be extinct since the 1940s in Cullen's hometown of Lily, Arkansa