This book was published 2001 by HarperCollins Publishers .

Paul Zindel was born on Staten Island, New York, where he spent ten years working as a chemistry teacher before becoming a writer. His first book, The Pigman , was published in 1969 to massive acclaim. He has since written over a dozen more novels and established himself as one of the strongest writers in his field. In 1971 he won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds and published an autobiographical account of his formative years, The Pigman and Me . Paul Zindel lived in Montague, New Jersey until his death in 2003 at the age of 66.