Patricia C. McKissack is the author of over twenty children's books, including The Dark Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural, which was a Newbery Honor book and a Coretta Scott King Award winner, and the All I’ll Ever Want Christmas Doll. She has also received the Coretta Scott King Award for A Long Hard Journey: The Story of Pullman Porter and Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters. Patricia currently lives in St. Louis.