Sharon Mentyka is a children's writer and teacher whose stories grow from small kernels of truth and explore common themes: fairness, transitions, and the complicated path to finding your own voice. Her middle-grade novel Chasing at the Surface was the 2016 children's winner of the National Outdoor Book Award. She is the author of Think Smart, Be Fearless: A Biography of Bill Gates,and The Heart of the Storm: A Biography of Sue Bird.