Ann Rubino is the author of Le Forestiere in the anthology, Italian Women in Chicago, and Peppino, Good as Bread, an intermediate-grade novel of World War II in Italy. As a child Ann Rubino read every book she could get her hands on, her favorites being the little orange biographies her mother gave her every Christmas. That began her lifelong love of learning. She gathered it first for herself, then to share with her children, and later to share with her students and other teachers. During those years she realized that many modern children are drawn to adventure, but often of a very fictional sort. It is monsters over inventors, superheroes over real ones. She wants to change that.While Ann was teaching professionally, she won the OHAUS Award for innovations in science teaching; took part in the creation of the New Generation Science Standards; sat on the review board of Science & Children magazine; and worked as a consultant for the Museum of Science & Industry, Chicago. She holds her MT(ASCP), B.A.Ed., and M.S. Ed. and an Endorsement in Gifted Education. Her last teaching assignment was as adjunct at Lewis University, training future teachers in methods of science teaching. Once retired, she reviewed many children's books for the Recommends division of Science & Children and continued her work on the review board.