Ilene Cooper is the author of more than 30 books for young people. In 2007, the Illinois Reading Council named Ilene Cooper the Prairie State Award winner for Excellence in Writing for Children. Ilene was born in Chicago and grew up in the city's Rogers Park neighborhood. After graduating Sullivan High School, she attended the University of Missouri School of Journalism where she majored in radio and television. She worked as an editorial researcher at Chicago's WGN TV station for several years, but her love of books brought her to Rosary College (now Dominican University), where she earned a master's degree in library science. As a youth librarian, Ilene worked at several branches of the Chicago Public Library and at the Winnetka-Northfield Public Library District before joining Booklist, the review journal of the American Library Association where she is currently the children's books editor. In her spare time, Ilene enjoys knitting, traveling-especially to Italy and England-and trying to get her cat, Bing, to do something other than stretch out on the radiator.