At the age of eleven, Jennifer A. Nielsen wrote her first full-length novel. But she abandoned the manuscript when a local locksmith halted her research on picking locks. As a kid growing up in northern Utah, Jennifer constantly read and reread The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken. Other favorite classics included The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, and the Hardy Boys series.