Jill Esbaum lives on a farm, on a dusty gravel road, where green walls of rustling corn surround the yard each summer. She and her husband raise corn, soybeans, and hundreds of pigs. A dozen cats hang around the back door each evening, waiting for her to slip out with leftovers (a dangerous time to go barefoot, she says!).

Her favourite season is autumn, when she gets to drive a huge, complicated tractor through crackling fields to help with the harvest under a blue, blue sky. And every day she wakes up feeling blessed, knowing how lucky she is to spend part of each day doing what she loves, and loving what she does - writing for kids.