Peter Lerangis


Peter Duncan Lerangis is an American author of children's and young adult fiction, best known for his Seven Wonders series and his work on the 39 Clues series.

Life and career

Lerangis's work includes the Seven Wonders series, all five books of which made The New York Times Best Seller list for Children's Books. He was also the author of The Viper's Nest and The Sword Thief, two titles in the New York Times-bestselling children's-book series The 39 Clues, along with the second entry in a four-novella collection, Vespers Rising. This book served as an introduction to a six-book 39 Clues sequel entitled Cahills Vs. Vespers, for which he wrote the third book, The Dead of the Night. His other books include the historical novel Smiler's Bones, the YA novel Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I Am, the YA dark comedy-adventure novel wtf, the Drama Club series, the Spy X series, the Watchers series, the Abracadabra series, and the Antarctica two-book adventure, as well ghost-writing for series such as the Three Investigators, the Hardy Boys Casefiles, Sweet Valley Twins, and more than forty books in the series The Baby-sitters Club and its various spin-offs. He has also written novels based on film screenplays, including The Sixth Sense, Sleepy Hollow, and Beauty and the Beast, and five video game novelizations in the Worlds of Power series created by Seth Godin. As a ghostwriter he has been published under the name A. L. Singer.
Lerangis is the son of a retired New York Telephone Company employee and a retired public-elementary-school secretary, who raised him in Freeport, New York on Long Island. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in biochemistry, while acting in musicals and singing with and musically directing the a cappella group the Harvard Krokodiloes. Peter was said to have been classmates with Bill Gates in college before he dropped out and founded the company Microsoft. Upon graduation, Peter moved to New York where he worked as an actor and freelance copy editor for eight years before becoming an author.
In 2003, Lerangis was chosen by First Lady Laura Bush to accompany her to the first Russian Book Festival, hosted by Russian First Lady Lyudmila Putina in Moscow. Authors R. L. Stine and Marc Brown also made the trip with Bush.
Also in 2003, Lerangis was commissioned by the United Kingdom branch of Scholastic to write X-Isle, one of four books that would relaunch the Point Horror series there. A sequel, Return to X-Isle, was published in 2004.
In 2007, Scholastic announced the launch of a new historical mystery series called The 39 Clues, intended to become a franchise. Lerangis wrote the third book in the series, The Sword Thief, published in March 2009. On March 3, 2009, Scholastic announced that Lerangis would write the seventh book in the series, The Viper's Nest.
In 2016, Lerangis traveled to Patan Dhoka, Nepal where he was the guest speaker at Bal Sahitya Mahotsav, the first children's literature festival in Nepal.
Lerangis lives in New York City with his wife, musician Tina deVaron, and their sons Nick and Joe.

''Max Tilt'' series

  1. Fire the Depths
  2. 80 Days or Die
  3. Enter the Core

    ''Seven Wonders">Seven Wonders (series)">Seven Wonders'' series

  4. The Colossus Rises
  5. Lost in Babylon
  6. The Tomb of Shadows
  7. The Curse of the King
  8. The Legend of the Rift
Seven Wonders Journals
  1. The Select and The Orphan
  2. The Key
  3. The Promise

    ''The 39 Clues'' series

  4. The Sword Thief
  5. The Viper's Nest
  6. Vespers Rising

    ''The 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers'' series

  1. The Fall Musical
  2. The Big Production
  3. Too Hot!
  4. Summer Stars

    ''Spy X'' series

  5. The Code
  6. Hide and Seek
  7. Proof Positive
  8. Tunnel Vision

    ''Abracadabra'' series (with Jim Talbot)

  9. Poof! Rabbits Everywhere
  10. Boo! Ghosts in School
  11. Presto! Magic Treasure
  12. Yeeps!: Secrets in the Statue
  13. Zap! Science Fair Surprise!
  14. Yikes! It's Alive!
  15. Whoa! Amusement Park Gone Wild!
  16. Wow! Blast from the Past!

    ''Antarctica'' series

  17. Journey to the Pole
  18. Escape from Disaster

    ''Watchers'' series

  19. Last Stop
  20. Rewind
  21. I.D.
  22. War
  23. Island
  24. Lab 6

    Others