Jane Sutton (website: www.jane-sutton.com) is the author of 9 children's books. Her latest picture book is WHAT'S UP WITH THIS CHICKEN? (Pelican, illustrated by Peter J. Welling). When Jane's friend and backyard chicken raiser, told her about one hen who refused to get off her eggs, Jane knew she had to turn the story into a children's book with both humor and chicken facts. Another recent book is ESTHER'S HANUKKAH DISASTER (Kar-Ben, illustrated by Andy Rowland), about a well-meaning gorilla who buys her animal friends what turn out to be wildly inappropriate gifts. Along the way, Esther learns a thing or two about empathy and the true meaning of Hanukkah. Jane began writing stories and poems at a young age. She would turn an assignment to "write a paragraph using all the spelling words" into a three-act play. An essay she penned in fifth grade is entitled "A Criticism of Humanity on Behalf of the Ducks." In response to the indignities of growing up on Long Island, she developed a sense of humor. As an editor of her high school newspaper, she once wrote an article in which she revealed that she was actually Diana Ross. She was elected class comedienne in high school, and to phi beta kappa in college (a rare combination?) Speaking of college, a touchy-feely sociology class assignment to "do something you always wanted to do and keep a journal on it" prompted her to write children's stories, an experience she enjoyed immensely. She eventually sold the stories to a company that published reading comprehension tests. Post-college writing jobs included newspaper staff writer, the highlight of which was interviewing James Earl Jones, and copywriter for a medical instrumentation company.Jane's published books include five picture books, three novels for 7-11 year olds, and one YA novel. Several have been published in French, one into Italian. Her humorous novel ME AND THE WEIRDOS was an ALA-CBC Children's Choice, winner of the Utah Children's Book Award, and sold over 90,000 copies. Her picture book THE TROUBLE WITH CAULIFLOWER was made into an app, available on iTunes.Besides working on her own writing, Jane teaches a class on writing for kids and tutors middle school through college students, helping them express their written ideas clearly. She gives author presentations in schools, libraries and community centers. Her presentations for kids, peppered with humorous anecdotes, are designed to inform, entertain, and inspire children to want to write themselves. Her talks for adults describe the roller coaster life of a children's book author. Jane has a blog about her writing and experiences: http://jane-sutton.com/blog/