Mavis Jukes was born in Nyack, New York, and grew up in New York City; Princeton, New Jersey; and Berkeley, California. She attended the University of Colorado, where she studied art; the University of California, where she studied education; and Golden Gate University, where she studied law. She is a member of the California Bar Association and has volunteered as a juvenile defense attorney.Jukes was an elementary school teacher and an art specialist in the late 1960s and early 1970s and recently returned to public education. She writes books for children and young adults and teaches leadership, writing, drawing, and human interactions. She lives in the country in Northern California with her husband, artist Robert Hudson, and two teenage daughters. She has written many books for children, including Expecting the Unexpected, It’s a Girl Thing, Blackberries in the Dark, I’ll See You in My Dreams, It’s a Guy Thing, and Like Jake and Me, for which she won a Newbery Honor.