It’s the birthday of bestselling children’s book author Andrew Clements (b. 1949), master of the genre known as “school stories” and best known for his novel Frindle (1996), in which a fifth grader named Nick locks horns with a dictionary-loving teacher who tries to squelch his attempt to get the made-up word “frindle” into common usage.

Clements was born in Camden, New Jersey, and grew up in the area until sixth grade, when his family moved to Springfield, Illinois; they spent summers at a cabin on a lake in Maine, where they played outdoors all day and read books at night and it all sounds very idyllic if you’re not addicted to technology. Clements studied at Northwestern University and then got a master’s in teaching at National Louis University. He went on to teach in the Chicago area for seven years, including fourth grade, eighth grade English, and high school English.

By then, Clements was married, and he and his wife had had the first of their four sons. They moved to New York City, where Clements tried and failed to be  singer-songwriter. He then worked for a small publisher and eventually wrote the text for picture books; he also did sales and became editorial director.

In 1990, Clements was talking with a group of first and second graders about how words come into being. They didn’t believe him when he said new words get made up all the time, so he made up the word “frindle” and explained that if everyone started calling pens “frindles,” the word would eventually be added to dictionaries. The students were fascinated by this idea, and after using it at many more school visits, Clements decided to write a picture book about it. Eventually he expanded Frindle into his first chapter book, and the book went on to sell more than 6.5 million copies, as is only right and good, because the ending of Frindle is one of the most satisfying and inspiring endings to a children’s novel that you will have the good fortune to come across should you live one hundred years. (Seriously. When we read the ending to our older son years ago, I had chills and got all choked up. And no, it wasn’t the flu.)

Clements has written more than 80 books, including The Report Card (2004), about a fifth grader hiding the fact that she’s a genius; No Talking (2007), about a terribly loud fifth grade cohort that enters into a surprising contest for silence, confounding their teachers; The Losers Club (2017), about kids who would rather read than do anything else; and many more. Clements’ favorite foods include pizza, steak, and Maine lobster (he and his wife live in Maine); he collects pens, also called frindles; and he loves the color blue. And he is one more example of the fact that children’s book authors are more likely on average than other authors to be stable family men/women.

Have a stable yet deeply inspiring Wednesday and stay scrupulously honest to the data.