In her most recent book GOTCHA! Mrs. Zookey's second-grade class goes on a spider hunt. Her next, to be published in 2008 by Clarion, is about Mrs. Zookey's class, too. It's titled CHESS! I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT!

Her books, notably DO BANANAS CHEW GUM? and THIRTEEN WAYS TO SINK A SUB, have won state child-voted prizes from Florida to the Pacific Northwest. In 2005 she received, from the Illinois Reading Council, the Prairie State Award for excellence in writing for children.

Born in Beardstown, Illinois, she also grew up in Pittsfield, Oak Park, and small towns in Missouri. She studied at the University of Missouri and received her bachelor's degree from the Northwestern University School of Speech. She lives in Wilmette.

In talks to children, generally about an hour with questions, she tells how a book grows from idea to finished volume, where her ideas come from and what she does with them once she gets them.

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