GARY PAULSEN is the distinguished author of many critically acclaimed books for young people, including three Newbery Honor books: The Winter Room, Hatchet and Dogsong. His novel The Haymeadow received the Western Writers of America Golden Spur Award. Among his newest Delacorte Press books are Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books, The Beet Fields: Memories of a Sixteenth Summer, Alida’s Song (a companion to The Cookcamp), Brian’s Return and Brian’s Winter (companions to Hatchet), Soldier’s Heart, The Transall Saga, My Life in Dog Years, Sarny: A Life Remembered (a companion to Nightjohnz), The Schernoff Discoveries, Father Water, Mother Woods: Essays on Fishing and Hunting in the North Woods and five books about Francis Tucket’s adventures in the Old West. Gary Paulsen has also published fiction and nonfiction for adults, as well as picture books created with his wife, the painter Ruth Wright Paulsen. The Paulsens live in New Mexico and on the Pacific Ocean.