Irene Hunt is the author of many distinguished books for young people. Her first novel, Across Five Aprils, was a Newberry Honor Book and received a Lewis Carroll Shelf Award. For her second novel, Up a Road Slowly, Ms. Hunt was awarded the Newberry Medal. Ms. Hunt was born in southern Illinois and has received degrees from the University of Illinois and the University of Colorado. For many years she taught in the public schools of northern Illinois, and later she taught psychology at the University of South Dakota. Ms. Hunt now lives in Florida.