But then he learned how to release the latch on the back yard gate, and even figured out how to escape from doggie day care! It didn't take long for Parker to discover that Merlin was more than a cheerful, energetic golden retriever - he was an escape artist! The baby gate in the kitchen was easy to conquer - he just jumped over it. Since she was leaving for college, his sister thought a dog would be just the thing to keep the guys from getting lonely. Parker and his older sister lived with their dad. My first novel for teenagers was THIS MUST BE LOVE, which retells Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a modern-day high school, from the POV of the two heroines, Hermia and Helena.Īnd now I'm writing in a new project called SEEKERS! It's a children's book series that I'm writing with Erin Hunter. MEET MO AND ELLA is tough to find now, but FUN WITH MO AND ELLA should still be out there somewhere. My first two official books were beginning readers, part of Grosset & Dunlap’s “First Friends” series for kids learning to read.

Much to my parents’ relief, I abandoned my theatrical aspirations after college for the far more stable and lucrative career of fiction writing. I graduated from Williams College in ’98 and I currently live in Boston with my husband, my perfect new baby, and my adorable yoodle Sunshine (what’s a yoodle? A puppy that’s three-quarters poodle and one-quarter Yorkshire terrier, of course!). because it was artistically fulfilling, yes.)

I was born July 31 (same birthday as Harry Potter!) in Caracas, Venezuela, and lived in Asuncion, Paraguay Miami, Florida and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, before moving to New Jersey in high school, where I started doing theatre-mostly backstage work, because (a) it was fun, and (b) you got to hang out in the dark with cute boys. Among the many great things to come out of New Zealand (the Lord of the Rings movies, cats that paint, my mom) is a bird called the tui-not as well known as the kiwi, but a heck of a lot noisier!

Tui? What kind of name is that? Is it short for something?

Runaway Retriever by Tui T. Sutherland