Biography

Angela Sommer-Bodenburg was born in
Reinbek (near Hamburg, Germany) in
1948. She attended the University of
Hamburg (1968-1972) where she focused on
education, psychology and sociology.

In 1972 she passed the state examination
(in intermediate and secondary
education) and then taught in a school in
Hamburg for the next 12 years.

It was during her teaching years that the
Little Vampire was born. "When I wrote the
first pages of the Little Vampire in 1976, my
primary goal was to write a book for children
that they would like to read. At that time, I
was a teacher of one and fourth graders, my
students were not fond of reading at all, and
wanted to play instead. However, I wanted
them to enjoy reading books. So I asked them
how books should be which they would want
to read. Their answers were almost always
the same: books should be entertaining,
funny, a little bit scary..."

Since 1984 Angela has been been a free lance
writer and painter. At the present time more
than 40 of her books have been published,
ranging from poetry and picture books to
novels. These books have been translated into
29 different languages and have sold about ten
million copies worldwide!

She has also received attention through
numerous radio, TV and stage adaptations of
her work, most notable being the two major 13
part television productions (aired in Europe and
Canada) based on The Little Vampire book
series.

Another interesting production was the musical
version of "The Little Vampire." It featured lyrics
that were partially written by Angela and it
toured the German speaking countries of Europe
for about a year and a half.

Since 1992 Angela has created more than 50
pieces of art. Her work has been exhibited at
various places throughout California (where she
has lived since 1992 with her husband/manager,
Burghardt and their Spanish mastiff).

Angela's more recent projects have included
watching over the filming and release of The
Little Vampire, a major motion picture based
around the book series, writing the movie
novelization and working on the 17th and 18th
books in the popular series.