

She lives with her family in Rockport, Maine. When she is not in her studio, Melissa can be found taking an art class, hiking with her dogs, or riding her bicycle. She also wrote and illustrated Tupelo Rides the Rails Carmine: A Little More Red, which was a New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book and Balloons Over Broadway, a picture book biography that was named a 2011 Publishers Weekly Best Nonfiction Picture Book. Melissa Sweet has illustrated more than eighty children's books, including the Caldecott Honor books The Right Word and A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams both written by Jen Bryant. A common theme in James Howe's books from preschool through teens is the acceptance of difference and being true to oneself. The Misfits, published in 2001, inspired the antibullying initiative No Name-Calling Week, as well as three sequels, Totally Joe, Addie on the Inside, and Also Known as Elvis. If thirteen is supposed to be an unlucky number.you would think a civilized society could come up. Among his other books are picture books such as Horace and Morris but Mostly Dolores and beginning reader series that include the Pinky and Rex and Houndsley and Catina books. The author has written six highly popular sequels, along with the spinoff series Tales from the House of Bunnicula and Bunnicula and Friends.

Bunnicula, coauthored by his late wife Deborah and published in 1979, is considered a modern classic of children's literature. James Howe is the author of more than ninety books for young readers.
