BIOGRAPHY OF SALLY WARNERSally Warner was born in New York City and grew up in Connecticut and California, where her family moved when she was eight years old. She attended public schools in Pasadena. She then received her B.A. degree from Scripps College in Claremont, California, and her B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees in fine arts from Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles.Sally Warner worked as an artist (primarily charcoal drawings) for many years, exhibiting her work at galleries, small museums, colleges, and universities across the country. Her drawings are in many private collections. She also taught art education for ten years at Pasadena City College. Her teaching led her to write her first non-fiction book for adults, ENCOURAGING THE ARTIST IN YOUR CHILD, in 1989. This book sold more than 20,000 copies. She still gets mail about another of her non-fiction books for adults, MAKING ROOM FOR MAKING ART (1994).Sally Warner then began writing fiction for young readers. Her first novel, DOG YEARS (1995), has sold almost 90,000 copies--in Italy! Sally Warner did the cartoons herself.To date, Sally Warner has had 30 novels published, mostly for ages 8--12. One of her most popular books so far was SORT OF FOREVER (1998, still available through Scholastic Book Club), which has sold close to 250,000 copies! She also writes for younger readers, ages 7-10; the books in her previous funny series for Viking (ONLY EMMA, NOT-SO-WEIRD EMMA, SUPER EMMA, BEST FRIEND EMMA, and EXCELLENT EMMA) have been getting lots of positive attention. Five ELLRAY JAKES books have come out in the last couple of years, and the 6th-ELLRAY JAKES IS MAGIC! will be out in spring, 2014. Three more EllRays are in the works.Sally Warner and her husband live in Southern California. She has four step-daughters, five step-grandchildren, and two sons who both have active careers in the arts: dance/choreography/teaching, and stereoscopic computer generated imagery for television and movies. For her family, the arts were definitely not a frill!For photos, cartoons, and more information on her books: www.sallywarner.com