The New Kid (19 page)

MAVIS JUKES
is the award-winning author of several books for children and teenagers, including the picture books
No One Is Going to Nashville
,
Blackberries in the Dark
,
I’ll See You in My Dreams
,
You’re a Bear
, and the Newbery Honor Book
Like Jake and Me
. Other titles include several nonfiction books in a series for adolescents, the latest of which is
Be Healthy! It’s a Girl Thing: Food, Fitness, and Feeling Great
, co-written with Lilian Cheung.

Mavis taught school for many years, then became a lawyer, before writing her first book for children. She recently returned to teaching full-time and is now a computer teacher in three public schools, teaching word processing, graphic design, and language arts to nine hundred enthusiastic students a week. It is from this job that she drew inspiration for the ideas and antics featured in
The New Kid
.

Mavis lives with her husband, the artist Robert Hudson, in Sonoma County, California. They share their small ranch with four cats, a dog, and numerous hawks, owls, raccoons, opossums, skunks, and other mysterious critters whose eyes twinkle in the dark. Mavis and Bob are the parents of four children, all artists.