Johan­na Hur­witz wrote her first book when she was in fourth grade in the Bronx. It was illus­trat­ed by a class­mate and they are still friends. Don’t look for the book in your school or pub­lic library because it won’t be there. The book was nev­er pub­lished. In fact, there is just one copy in all the world, and it is kept safe in a zip-locked bag in Johanna’s brief­case. She takes it to schools to show stu­dents and tell them it’s nev­er too ear­ly to begin writ­ing, learn­ing music, prac­tic­ing sports, and plan­ning ahead.

Johan­na didn’t pub­lish her first book, Busy­body Nora, until she was 38 years old. Since then, she has writ­ten and pub­lished more than 70 books, includ­ing The River­side Kids series, Class Clown, Base­ball Fever, and biogra­phies of Anne Frank, Leonard Bern­stein, and Helen Keller.

She has also been a children’s librar­i­an in school and pub­lic libraries. And she has trav­eled all over the Unit­ed States and oth­er coun­tries talk­ing to chil­dren, teach­ers, and par­ents about read­ing and writ­ing. One of her favorite activ­i­ties is explor­ing sec­ond-hand book­stores and dis­cov­er­ing won­der­ful out-of-print books that she wasn’t look­ing for and didn’t even know exist­ed. She has two chil­dren and three grand­chil­dren. She has owned four cats, but not all at the same time. Johan­na lives in Ver­mont and Long Island, NY.