Frances O'Roark Dowell is the bestselling and critically acclaimed author of Dovey Coe , which won the Edgar Award and the William Allen White Award; Where I'd Like to Be ; The Secret Language of Girls and its sequels The Kind of Friends We Used to Be and The Sound of Your Voice, Only Really Far Away ; Chicken Boy ; Shooting the Moon , which was awarded the Christopher Award; the Phineas L. MacGuire series; Falling In ; The Second Life of Abigail Walker , which received three starred reviews; Anybody Shining; Ten Miles Past Normal ; Trouble the Water ; the Sam the Man series; The Class ; How to Build a Story ; Hazard ; and, most recently, Then a House Fell on Her Head . She lives with her family in Durham, North Carolina. Connect with Frances online at FrancesDowell.com. Amy June Bates is the author-illustrator of The Big Umbrella and The Welcome Home . She is also the illustrator of the New York Times bestseller The Leadership Journey by Doris Kearns Goodwin; Sweet Dreams and That's What I'd Do , both by singer-songwriter Jewel; Waiting for the Magic by Patricia MacLachlan; Joey: The Story of Joe Biden by Dr. Jill Biden; and many others.

She has three children and lives in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with her husband and her devilishly handsome Labrador, Mr. Mochi.