Tony Johnston was born January 30, 1942, in Los Angeles, CA. After attending Stanford University where she earned a B.A. in History and an M.A in Education, she became a fourth-grade teacher. She has written over seventy books for children. Her titles include Amber on the Mountain, the Cowboy and the Black-Eyed Pea, Day of the Dead, the Ghost of Nicholas Greebe, the Sparky and Eddie series, and the Adventures of Mole and Troll. Her first adult novel was Any Small Goodness. Her works have earned her several awards including a Children's Choice Award for Four Scary Stories and the Beatty Award in 2002 for Any Small Goodness.