Crystal Hubbard was reared in St. Louis, Missouri, where she began her writing career in her seventh-grade French class at Busch Junior High School for Gifted Students. A former Boston newspaper reporter and sports copy editor, she is an award-winning author of picture books, contemporary and historical romance novels, short stories, and educational text. Her first picture book, Catching the Moon: The Story of a Young Girl's Baseball Dream, received the American Library Association's 2006 Amelia Bloomer Project Award. The mother of four children aged six to seventeen, Hubbard volunteers in classrooms, conducting reading and writing workshops and composing grant proposals for schools and… teachers. She is a dedicated advocate for United States veterans and active troops, and she campaigns every holiday season for the Marines Toys for Tots Foundation. Her hobbies include reading, sewing, cooking, traveling, boxing, hiking, and orchestrating harmless yet clever pranks. Hubbard is the author of more than 25 novels, picture books and short stories.