Gail Carson Levine

Gail Carson Levine (born September 17, 1947 in New York, New York) is an American author of young adult books. Her first novel, Ella Enchanted, received a Newbery Honor in 1998. Levine grew up in Washington Heights, Manhattan. She credits her parents David and Sylvia for her creative streak. Her father, whose childhood in an orphanage provided inspiration for her story Dave at Night, owned a commercial art studio, and her mother was a teacher who wrote plays for her students to perform. Her older sister, Rani, her senior by five years, became a painter. As a child, Levine read avidly; her favorite book was James M. Barrie's Peter Pan, and she also enjoyed the works of Louisa May Alcott and L. M. Montgomery. She initially aspired to be...