KAREN HESSE is the Newbery Medal-winning author of many acclaimed books for young readers, among them Out of the Dust, winner of the 1998 Newbery Medal and the Scott O’Dell Award; Letters From Rifka, winner of the Christopher Medal and the International Reading Association Award for Young Adult Fiction; Phoenix Rising, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults; and The Music of Dolphins, a School Library Journal and Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. Her most recent books include Stowaway and The Cats in Krasinski Square. She lives with her family in Brattleboro, Vermont.