SATA

PERSONAL

Married; husband’s name Brad; children: Jake, Zach, Molly.

EDUCATION:

Whittier College, B.A. (speech, language pathology), 1994.

ADDRESS

• Home - Glendora, CA.
• Agent - Jill Corcoran, Jill Corcoran Literary Agency, 2150 Park Place, Ste. 100, El Segundo, CA 90245.

CAREER

Educator and author. Teacher of middle-school language arts and history, and cross-country coach, in Southern CA, beginning c. 2002. Teachers’ Curriculum Institute, author of social-studies curriculum, 2004-09; founder of 241 Books.

AVOCATIONS:

Hiking, distance running, crocheting.

MEMBER:

Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators, Authors Guild.

WRITINGS

• Projected into the Past, Great Source Education (Wilmington, MA), 2005
• Losing It, Amazon Children’s Pub. (Las Vegas, NV), 2012
• The Benefactor, Skyscape (New York, NY), 2013
• Secrets of the Book, Two Lions (New York, NY), 2014
• Undercover Chefs, 50/50 Press (Albany, NY), 2018
• Joey the Good , Jolly Fish Press (Mendota Heights, MN), 2025

Contributor of book reviews to Publishers Weekly.

SIDELIGHTS

Erin M. Fry is a middle-school language arts and history teacher, and her work as her school’s cross-country coach inspired her to write her first novel, Losing It. As Fry revealed on her website, “Every year I have kids who come out to run who are not runners when they show up. They finish last and every run is tougher than tough. But they keep trying” and “aren’t afraid to finish last.” Fry entertains slightly older readers in her young-adult novel The Benefactor, and she returns to a middle-grade audience in her fantasy story Secrets of the Book.

Losing It opens shortly after eighth-grader Bennett witnesses his obese father collapse as the result of a stroke. Bennett knows that he and his dad have the same poor living habits, and he shares his worries with the aunt who cares for him during his dad’s hospitalization. The preteen attempts to follow a healthier lifestyle, including joining his school’s track team, but the journey is a struggle, not only due to training but due to bullies, busybody friends, and his worries over his father’s health. “Fry piles a load of anxieties onto her struggling protagonist,” Elizabeth Bush asserted in a Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books review, “but each trial is credible and intrinsic to his situation.”

 

Bennett’s “hard work is believably portrayed in his engagingly realistic voice,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews critic, making Losing It “an energizing and ultimately uplifting tale of the power to change.” In School Library Journal Kim Dare cited Fry’s “great ear for middle school dialogue” and concluded that her “light, humorous touch will ensure that readers keep turning the pages.”

Fry introduces two unlikely heroes in her fantasy Secrets of the Book. Twelve-year-old Spencer has a degenerative eye disease that will eventually rob him of his sight, and because of this he is surprised when an elderly friend gived him a magic book during a nursing home visit. Titled “Pandora’s Book,” the volume can bring historical figures to life. After enemies try to steal it from Spencer, the boy enlists the aid of autistic friend Gregor to protect the book and keep history’s worst villains from returning to life.

“Fry has created a memorable group of contemporary and historical characters to give life to this fast-paced adventure,” wrote Beth L. Meister in School Library Journal, and Booklist contributor Kathleen Isaacs praised Secrets of the Book as a “suspenseful adventure” with “fast-moving” action. The novel’s young hero “is instantly relatable,” wrote a Publishers Weekly critic, and her characters with disabilities “stand out as the kind of heroes too seldom seen.” Alaine Martaus hailed the way Frye “realistically” portrays characters by dealing with their limitations, the critic adding in the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books that Secrets of the Book “offers a high-spirited adventure enhanced with a dose of educational fun.”

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In Fry’s coming of age novel, Undercover Chefs, three unlikely middle schoolers come together for a cooking contest. Athletic Isaac is a runner and Junior Olympic hopeful who likes baking with his grandmother, even though his mother wants him to concentrate on his running. Shy Jane, who lost her mother a few years ago, is worried that her grandfather’s failing health means he will die soon too, so she finds comfort in baking cookies like she used to do with her mother. Rebellious scooter rider J.C. must care for and cook meals for his younger siblings while his single-parent mother works. When J.C.’s grades start falling, his mother takes his scooter away.

The three kids hear of a mysterious cupcake baking contest that will offer a cash prize for the school that creates the most delicious cupcake. Isaac, Jane, and J.C. join together on the project, hoping to win the prize money so they can revitalize their neglected cooking classroom. The book has links to recipes for cupcakes, cookies, and muffins. Noting that “Undercover Chefs is a grand, feel-good story,” Readers’ Favorite contributor Jack Magnus praised “this inspiring and delightful story about growing up amidst responsibilities, parental and teacher expectations and classroom challenges.”

Fry presents two Italian American cousins who reconcile a past tragedy while hiking a mountain in Joey the Good. In California, 12-year-old seventh grader Joey plans to spend his summer vacation as a couch potato king watching soccer and cooking with his grandmother, Nonna. That is until his perfect, athletic, 17-year-old cousin Leo comes to spend the summer with Joey’s family. Two years ago their grandfather, Nonno, died during a fishing trip with Joey and Leo, that Joey blames himself for and that spurred Leo into athletic pursuits. Now Leo has asked Joey to help him train for a 22-mile hike up Mount Whitney on what would be Nonno’s 75th birthday. Joey declines, until he learns that Leo has been diagnosed with young-onset multiple sclerosis, and this might be his last time to hike the mountain. As Joey and Leo share their grief, Joey emerges out of his shell, befriends other hikers, and enjoys the physical activity.

According to a Publishers Weekly reviewer, the book offers “heartfelt exploration of grief, guilt, and family bonds upheld by complicated and realistically rendered emotions.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews noted that Joey is a strong first-person narrator, and that “Leo is a well-rounded character, not simply a prop for Joey’s story.” The reviewer added that “the close, fraught bond between the cousins is realistic.”

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BIOCRIT

PERIODICALS

• Booklist, February 1, 2014, Kathleen Isaacs, review of Secrets of the Book, p. 66.

• Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, December, 2012, Elizabeth Bush, review of Losing It, p. 194; March, 2014, Alaine Martaus, review of Secrets of the Book, p. 356.

• Horn Book Guide, fall, 2014, Russell Perry, review of Secrets of the Book, p. 73.

• Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2012, review of Losing It; January 1, 2014, review of Secrets of the Book; March 15, 2025, review of Joey the Good.

• Publishers Weekly, November 25, 2013, review of Secrets of the Book, p. 57; February 10, 2025, review of Joey the Good, p. 48.

• School Library Journal, November, 2012, Kim Dare, review of Losing It, p. 104; April, 2014, Beth L. Meister, review of Secrets of the Book, p. 146.

• Voice of Youth Advocates, December, 2012, Lucy Schall, review of Losing It, p. 467.

ONLINE

• Erin Fry website, http://www.erinmfry.com (December 20, 2016).*

• Readers Favorite, https://readersfavorite.com/ (November 1, 2025), Jack Magnus, review of Undercover Chefs.