Jenny Han (born September 3, 1980) is an American author of young adult fiction and children's fiction. She is best known for writing The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy and the To All the Boys series, the latter of which was adapted into a film of the same name in 2018 starring Lana Condor and Noah Centineo.
Early life[]
She was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia to Korean parents. She is a Korean-American. She graduated from Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies in 1998. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and later earned her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at The New School, from which she graduated in 2006. Han resides in Brooklyn, New York City.
Career[]
Han wrote her first book, the children's novel Shug, while she was still in college. Shug is about Annemarie Wilcox, a twelve-year-old trying to navigate the perils of junior high school. Her next project was a young adult romance trilogy, about a girl's coming-of-age during her summer breaks. The three novels, The Summer I Turned Pretty, It's Not Summer Without You, and We'll Always Have Summer, quickly became New York Times Best Sellers.
To All the Boys trilogy[]
In 2014, Han released a young adult romance novel, To All the Boys I've Loved Before, about Lara Jean Song Covey, a high school student whose life turns upside down when the letters she wrote to her five past crushes are sent out without her knowledge. The novel was optioned for a screen adaptation in the weeks following its debut. The sequel, P.S. I Still Love You, was released the following year, and won the Young Adult 2015–2016 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. A third novel, Always and Forever, Lara Jean, was released two years later. The film adaptation of the first novel, starring Lana Condor in the lead role, began filming in July 2017 and was released by Netflix in August 2018, to positive reviews. She had a brief cameo in the film.
Bibliography[]
- Children's books
- Shug (2006)
- Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream (2011)
- The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy
- The Summer I Turned Pretty (2009)
- It's Not Summer Without You (2010)
- We'll Always Have Summer (2011)
- Burn for Burn trilogy
- Burn for Burn (2012)
- Fire with Fire (2013)
- Ashes to Ashes (2014)
- To All the Boys trilogy
- To All the Boys I've Loved Before (2014)
- P.S. I Still Love You (2015)
- Always and Forever, Lara Jean (2017)
- Short stories
- "Polaris Is Where You'll Find Me" in My True Love Gave To Me: Twelve Holiday Stories (2014)
Trivia[]
- Jenny Han makes a cameo appearance in both To All the Boys I've Loved Before and To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You and in the pilot episode of XO Kitty.