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Scott Westerfeld is an American Author best known for writing the Uglies and Leviathan series. He has written 18 novels, 5 of which are targeted towards adults while 13 of them remain in the Young Adult genre. Scott was born in Texas but currently lives with his wife traveling back and forth from New York City and Sydney, Australia. He earned is BA in Philosophy at Vassar College in New York, and he completed some graduate work in performance studies at NYU.
(https://scottwesterfeld.com/about-the-author/)
Common themes for Scott Westerfeld's writing include science fiction trilogies which typically highlight the lives of teenagers dealing with coming of age drama mixed with fantasy elements.

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Scott has completed four separate sets of Young Adult book series, all of which have been successful. (not including his new series, Horizon, since it is still too early to tell) The most well known of his books are the Uglies series, with three books and one extra companion novel told from a different character's perspective.
The series is a science fiction story set in the future where everyone has to undergo cosmetic surgery at the age of 16 in order to meet society's standard of beautiful, or else face consequences decided by the government.
(http://scottwesterfeld.com/books/uglies/)

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The Leviathan trilogy is a science fiction story based on World War 1, following Prince Aleksander who is on the run from his own people, and Deryn Sharp who is a regular girl disguised as a boy serving in the British Air Service. The two characters eventually cross paths in this thrilling adventure that proves to change their lives. It is popular in the young adult genre for its exciting themes in fantasy, love, and war. (https://scottwesterfeld.com/books/leviathan/)

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Aside from the series that I have detailed here, there are other books completed by Scott Westerfeld which deserve mentioning. The Spill Zone is a mysterious graphic novel detailing an unexplained event in New York City which has destroyed a small town in Upstate New York. (http://www.thespillzone.com/)
Afterworlds is a novel about a young writer who reaches success with her writing during high school. She escapes a terrorist attack and makes some interesting discoveries about her identity along the way. (https://scottwesterfeld.com/books/afterworlds/)
Peeps is different from his other novels in that it is a vampire story. It still follows suit with the science fiction themes  but it remains unique in content. It can be described as scarier than his other work, but a hit among the young adult crowd who love vampire stories. (https://scottwesterfeld.com/books/peeps/)

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Scott Westerfeld has been awarded four awards, along with some special recognitions for his work. Leviathan earned him the 2010 Locus Award for Best Young Adult Fiction. The Russian translation of Leviathan also earned the title of Best Young Adult Fiction in 2011. In addition to these, Leviathan was nominated for an Oregon Reader's Choice Award in the intermediate division. Uglies and Peeps were both named as "Best Books for Young Adults" in 2006 by the American Library Association. The Secret Hour won an Aurealis Award. And So Yesterday won a Victiorian Premier's Award. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Westerfeld#Awards)

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Scott Westerfeld's work does contain themes that can be used in the classroom, such as society and class, and man vs. the natural world. But other themes of his work, such as identity, friendship, and certain coming of age struggles lead me to believe that his work is primarily read for pleasure. I personally read the Uglies series for pleasure when I was in 7th grade so I could be a biased source for this topic, but I would place the odds split at 70% pleasure, 30% classroom assignment. I would love to see the percentage of teachers using his work go up, since I believe that identity and coming of age crisis should be discussed more in the classroom.

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The Succession series is a technology driven story that follows a starship captain in space. These were some of Westerfeld's earliest novels and his first to be released in hardback. He tried to keep this story as realistic as possible while still being a science fiction fantasy. To this day, Westerfeld says that he might return to this series since he loved it so much, but he has yet to get back to them. (https://scottwesterfeld.com/books/succession-series/)

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The Horizon books include seven in the series, with the first book being released recently in 2017. This series is unique since it is the first in which Westerfeld will not write all by himself. He has written the first book in the series on his own but plans on having 6 different authors completing the rest, with the help of his outline for the story. Horizon follows kids who have been in a plane crash and find themselves in a curious science fiction themed jungle full of new and fascinating creatures. Although this series will be completed by other authors, it definitely fits in with classic Westerfeld fantasy themes. (https://scottwesterfeld.com/books/horizon/)

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Zeroes is a trilogy about 6 teenagers in California who have special powers. They are not considered heroes because their powers aren't always used for good, and they have quite a bit of drama between them which makes them relatable characters for a young adult audience. This is a series which was primarily written by Westerfeld, but still has two other authors who contribute to the team of writers collaborating on all three books. (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24885636-zeroes)