About the Authors

   Here is some info about a few of the authors that wrote the books I've reviewed.  They will be in alphabetical order by last name.

David Almond	David Almond's best-known book is Skellig.  He grew up in Felling on Tyne.  As a child, Almond hated school, but loved the library.  Before becoming a writer full-time, he was a teacher but found that teaching took up all his time.  Then he wrote short stories and edited a magazine.      Since 1990, Almond has been a part-time special needs teacher.  He has strong views about the imagination and freedom, which he expresses in Mina, a character in Skellig.       He is 47, and lives with his wife Sara Jane in Newcastle.
Anne McCaffrey	Anne McCaffrey is the author of many books about dragons and Pern, a fantasy world.  She was born on April 1, 1926 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Her parents were George Herbert McCaffrey, and Anne Dorothy McElroy McCaffrey.  She also had two brothers; they were Hugh  and Kevin Richard.  She got her education at Radcliffe College.       Below is quoted from the inside back cover of Dragonflight:      "Anne McCaffrey has tried to live up to her auspicious natal day. Her first novel was written in Latin class and might have brought her instant fame, as well as an A, if she had attempted to write in the language."      McCaffrey currently lives at Dragonhold, in the hills of Wickow County, Ireland, with two of her children, her horse Mr. Ed, four cats, and a dog.  She appears frequently in the United States and England.
J. K. Rowling	J.K Rowling has written the new, sensational, Harry Potter books.  She was born in Chipping Sodbury General Hospital, which "is appropriate for someone who collects funny names."  She has one sister, Di, who is just under two years younger than J. K.  As she says, "Di suffered my first attempts at storytelling."  J. K.'s first "book" was called Rabbit, and it was written when she was six years old.  When she was first writing Harry Potter, it was on scraps of paper at a local cafe during her daughter's naps.      She now lives in Edinburgh with her daughter, who says when asked what mommies do, "Mommies write!"