Hans Brinker, Or, the Silver Skates

Mary Mapes Dodge was born in 1834 in New York City. As a teenager, she wrote unsigned articles for her father's magazine. She later married and had two sons. After her husband's death, she moved into her parent's home and decided to become a writer. Her first work was a collection of children's stories. Hans Brinker was published when Dodge was thirty-one and it made her famous. At age thirty-nine she became editor of St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls. Editor: Kathryn Lindskoog, educator, literary critic, an expert on C.S. Lewis, and poet has written and edited more that twenty-five books, among them: A Child's Garden of Christian Verses and How to Grow a Young Reader. In addition to teaching high-school English for seven years, she taught as an adjunct instructor at several universities. Her teaching career became limited by Multiple Sclerosis, which became disabling in the 1960's.

Patricia Lauber is the author of the Around-the-House series and more than 125 other books for young people. Her Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of St. Helens was a Newbery Honor Book. She lives with her husband and two cats, Beemer and MeToo, in New Canaan, Connecticut.