Hillary H. De Baun

What I like best about writing books for young readers is the joy of creating funny stories and whimsical characters. I enjoy adolescents of all kinds, but nerds are particular favorites. What I most want to give readers, aside from quirky characters and laugh-out-loud adventure, is the feeling that the story could actually happen to them, that they could own the adventure and be a part of it.

I was married and the mother of teenage boys when I started writing books. For several years, I taught preschool in rural Alabama. There were no funds for books so I provided stories and simple reading texts for the classroom. Some of those stories later turned into picture books. Novels for tweens and young adults came later. It was when I created impulsive, romantic Arabelle that I found my "humor voice."

I currently live with my husband in Hingham, Massachusetts and part of the year on St. Simons Island, Georgia. When I'm not writing, I'm usually reading or tramping around the many woodland trails and beaches nearby, where I invent new stories filled with whimsical goings-on and characters that jump off the page into readers' hearts.