Michael Northrop's first young adult novel, Gentlemen, earned him a Publishers Weekly Flying Start citation, and his second, Trapped, was an Indie Next List pick and an ALA/YALSA Readers' Choice List selection. His middle-grade novel, Plunked, was named one of the best children's books of the year by the New York Public Library and was selected by NPR for its Backseat Book Club. He is originally from Salisbury, Connecticut, a small town in the foothills of the Berkshire mountains, where he mastered the arts of BB gun shooting, tree climbing, and field goal kicking with only moderate injuries. After graduating from NYU, he worked at The World Almanac and Sports Illustrated Kids, where he was a senior editor from 2000 to 2008. His articles and stories have been published widely.