Elly Berke has always loved children's literature and the power of asking good questions. Her earliest influence was Barbara Cooney whom she met in 1991 at a book signing in Damariscotta, Maine. The characters in this story are inspired by people she has met on her professional journey through public education: leading programs at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, teaching ESL in bilingual schools, and studying Arts in Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Outside of writing and teaching, she is a professional actor involved in many projects around her local Somerville, MA and virtually through her home voice over studio.