Trent Reedy Books in Order

Trent Reedy was born in Iowa and grew up in Dysart, a small farm town he remembers as a safe place for kids, full of bikes, ball games, and open space. He started telling stories early. By his own account, one of his first was a first-grade tale about a lion, a villain, and a switch that stopped time. The details may have been shaky, but the impulse was already there.

He wanted to make books long before he knew how hard that would be.

After high school, Reedy studied English at the University of Iowa. To help pay for college, he joined the Iowa Army National Guard and served as a combat engineer, the classic part-time soldier schedule of weekends and summer training. He has joked that the Guard taught him rifles, machine guns, and explosives, while college taught him Shakespeare, Chaucer, poetry, and the basic truth that writing is difficult.

Then the Army called, and the writing life he had pictured for himself was suddenly on hold.

His unit was sent to Afghanistan, an experience that changed both his life and his work. During that deployment, someone mailed him Bridge to Terabithia, and reading it in the middle of war helped him realize he wanted to write for young people. He also met Afghan children and families while doing reconstruction work, and one girl with a cleft lip stayed with him in a lasting way. Reedy later said he promised himself he would tell a story inspired by her quiet courage.

When he came home, he returned to Iowa and taught high school English, while also directing school plays and continuing to write. He still had that Afghanistan story in mind, and he wanted the tools to do it well. So he went on to earn an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. That path, soldier to teacher to novelist, helps explain why his books often feel both grounded and emotionally direct.

His debut, Words in the Dust, was published in 2011. The novel follows Zulaikha, a thirteen-year-old girl in Afghanistan who dreams of school, peace, and a changed future. Readers responded to its empathy, sense of place, and the way it gives a young girl space to hope without pretending life is simple. The book won a Christopher Medal, received a Golden Kite honor, and was chosen for a national TV book club.

Reedy did not stick to one lane after that. The Divided We Fall trilogy turned toward near-future political collapse and war inside the United States, while If You're Reading This became a more intimate story about grief, family, and letters from a father killed in Afghanistan. Later, Gamer Army moved into virtual reality and sci-fi suspense. Very different premises, same interest in kids under pressure, trying to figure out what kind of people they want to be.

He also writes strong middle grade adventure. Books like Hunter's Choice, Racing Storm Mountain, and Fishing In Fire are set around McCall, Idaho, and throw young characters into hunts, storms, avalanches, and wildfires. They are outdoorsy books, but they are also about friendship, nerves, family expectations, and the social drama of being twelve or thirteen. Reedy's action scenes move quickly, yet he usually keeps one eye on the heart of the problem.

He returned to Afghanistan in Enduring Freedom, written with Jawad Arash and inspired by the real friendship the two formed there. Across all of his work, a few things keep showing up: loyalty, courage, fear, the cost of violence, and the possibility of connection across big divides. These days he lives outside Spokane, Washington, with his family, where he reads, writes, rides bikes, and keeps turning hard experiences into stories young readers can actually feel.