Cynthia Cotten has written several books for young readers, including This Is the Stable, Abbie in Stitches, At the Edge of the Woods and Snow Ponies. She grew up in Lockport, New York, a small town on the Erie Canal. She didn’t always know she wanted to be a writer—she dreamed of being a teacher, a marine biologist, a U.N. interpreter and a jockey—but she always loved reading. “My idea of the perfect summer vacation,” she says, “was to go to the library once a week, check out as many books as I could fit into my bike basket, and spend the rest of the week sitting someplace cool, reading.” Cotten lives in Montclair, Virginia.