Bonnie Turner -- one of the few remaining members of the Greatest Generation -- was born on Halloween in Independence, Missouri, at the height of the Great Depression. Currently residing in Wisconsin, she is a mother, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother. Her interests are many and varied, including astronomy, geography, history, yoga, philosophy, psychology, metaphysics and parapsychology. She's a self-educated jack-of-all-trades, a Mensa *almost*, a classical music and jazz fusion aficionado.Turner's favorite authors include: Mark Twain, James A. Michener, poets Robert Service and Edgar A. Guest. Some favorite books: Giants in the Earth (O.E. Rolvaag), Steamboat Gothic (Frances Parkinson Keyes), Chesapeake (Michener), the epic poem, The Odyssey of Homer, and Harvest Home (Thomas Tryon). Favorite genres: historical fiction, young-adult fiction, literary fiction, humor, Americana, mainstream, commercial -- almost anything except violent, gory tales.Turner learned to read in first grade from the famed "Dick and Jane" readers. Many years later, her first novel for children (The Haunted Igloo) was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1991. After that book was published, she visited grade schools with a life-sized, handmade Inuit doll, encouraging students to keep reading and writing -- and offering polar bear hugs along with her autograph. Among her favorite fan letters are these gems: "Mrs. Turner, I'll give you a million dollars for this book!"; "Dear Mrs. Turner, Thank you for getting me out of sixth hour!!!"; "Dear Mrs. Turner, Thank you from all the lead in my pencil!" What great kids, those middle-grade students!Please visit Bonnie Turner's web page: http://my.athenet.net/~aurorawolf