David Klass

Klass was born in Vermont and raised in Leonia, New Jersey, the son of Sheila Solomon Klass, English professor and author, and Morton Klass, professor of anthropology at Barnard College and the brother of Perri Klass, a pediatrician, author, educator, and a contributing columnist for The New York Times. His uncle was science fiction author Philip Klass, who wrote under the name William Tenn.

Klass attended Leonia High School.Gallo, Donald R. [https://books.google.com/books?id=PUKr1HRstTYC&pg=PA298 Ultimate Sports], p. 298. Random House Children's Books, 2009. {{ISBN|9780307568434}}. Accessed May 16, 2016. "As a teenager David Klass played baseball and soccer at Leonia Public High School and went on to do the same at Yale University, from which he graduated." He received his BA in History from Yale University in 1982 and later graduated from USC School of Cinema-Television (1989).[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0458318/bio Biography] Internet Movie Database. Klass lives in New York City with his wife, Giselle Benatar, and their two children.[http://us.macmillan.com/Author/davidklass David Klass - Profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090703104150/http://us.macmillan.com/author/davidklass |date=2009-07-03 }} Macmillan Publishers.

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.[https://www.amazon.com/dp/0590466895 California Blue by David Klass] In 2001 Klass published You don’t know me, which uses an edgy first-person narrative to tell the story of a teenage boy’s life with an abusive stepfather-to-be. 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.[http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780064473781/You_Dont_Know_Me/index.aspx You Don't Know Me by David Klass]

Firestorm is the first book of the Caretaker Trilogy, a series of science fiction thrillers with an ecological theme. Firestorm was the first book ever endorsed by Greenpeace[https://www.variety.com/article/VR1117946690.html?categoryid=1238&cs=1 Variety article]{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/books/review/Hynes.t.html?_r=2&oref=slogin|title=The Hero and the Whatsit |newspaper=The New York Times|author=Hynes, James|date=2006-09-12|accessdate=2009-09-26}} and was praised by critics for its combination of entertainment value and environmental message, garnering an American Library Association (ALA) Best Book citation,{{Cite web |url=http://wikis.ala.org/yalsa/index.php/Librarians'_Choice:_100_Super_Summer_Reads_for_Teens |title=Librarians' Choice: 100 Super Summer Reads for Teens - YALSA |access-date=2008-02-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090413003108/http://wikis.ala.org/yalsa/index.php/Librarians'_Choice:_100_Super_Summer_Reads_for_Teens |archive-date=2009-04-13 |url-status=dead }} a starred review from Publishers Weekly,[http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6388182.html Publishers Weekly] and a favorable review by The New York Times Book Review.{{cite web |title=The Hero and the Whatsit (Published 2006) |website=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/books/review/Hynes.t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin}} The story focuses on Jack Danielson, a teenager sent back from the future to save the world’s oceans.

Whirlwind, the second book in the Caretaker Trilogy, tells the story of Jack’s efforts to save the Amazon rain forest; published in March 2008 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The third book in the trilogy is Timelock, published in fall 2009.{{Cite web |url=http://us.macmillan.com/splash/catalogs/squarefish_springsummer08.pdf |title=Spring 2008 Catalog |access-date=2008-05-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120922085558/http://us.macmillan.com/splash/catalogs/squarefish_springsummer08.pdf |archive-date=2012-09-22 |url-status=dead }}

Firestorm has been optioned by Warner Bros. and the production company Thunder Road. A screenplay for the movie version is now in active development.

Out of Time is an adult novel about a talented young FBI agent in pursuit of an ecoterrorist.

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.[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0458318/ David Klass] His most recent produced screenplay was the remake of Walking Tall starring The Rock.[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0458318/ Walking Tall at IMDB] Klass wrote the screenplay for the thriller Desperate Measures starring Michael Keaton and Andy García, which was based on his original idea.[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0458318/ Desperate Measures at IMDB] With his sister, playwright and Truman Scholar{{Cite web|url=https://as.vanderbilt.edu/jewishstudies/lecturers/judy-klass/|title = Judy Klass}} Judy Klass, he adapted Julia Alvarez's novel In the Time of the Butterflies into the 2001 movie starring Salma Hayek and Edward James Olmos.[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0458318 In the Time of the Butterflies at IMDB]/

• The Atami Dragons (1984)
• Breakaway Run (1987)
• Different Season (1988)
• Wrestling With Honor (1989)
• Night of the Tyger (1990)
• Samurai, Inc. (1992)
• California Blue (1994)
• Danger Zone(1996)
• Screen Test (1997)
• Desperate Measures (1998) (with Robert Tine)
• You Don't Know Me (2001)
• Home of the Braves (2002)
• Dark Angel (2005)
• The Caretaker Trilogy

:#Firestorm (2006)

:#Whirlwind (2008)

:#Timelock (2009)

• Stuck on Earth (2010)
• Second Impact (2013), with Perri Klass
• Grandmaster (2014)
• Losers Take All (2015)
• Out of Time (July 7, 2020)

• Kiss the Girls (1997)
• Desperate Measures (1998)
• Runaway Virus (2000)
• In the Time of the Butterflies (2001)
• Walking Tall (2004)

{{Reflist}}

17. Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2020

• {{IMDb name|0458318}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071117020027/http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile David Klass' Myspace page ]
• [http://www.fsgkidsbooks.com/authordetails.asp?ID=Klass David Klass: Farrar, Straus & Giroux]
• [http://www.fsgkidsbooks.com/newbooks.htm The Caretaker Trilogy: Farrar, Straus & Giroux ]

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Category:Living people

Category:American writers of young adult literature

Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:American male screenwriters

Category:Yale University alumni

Category:21st-century American novelists

Category:American male novelists

Category:Leonia High School alumni

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:21st-century American male writers

Category:Film directors from New Jersey

Category:Screenwriters from New Jersey

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Writers from Leonia, New Jersey