About the Authors

About the Authors

Series Editor

The main editor of the High Interest Series is Paul Kropp. Paul has also written the majority of the titles himself. Each title is re-edited for readers in the UK and Ireland, and for readers in Europe who prefer European ‘English’ spellings and colloquialisms. This editing is only concerned with spelling changes, and with words or phrases whose meanings differ between the original and European English usage, or might cause confusion for some students. For example, the term ‘bathrooms’ in institutional buildings is converted to ‘toilets’ where appropriate.

The Authors

Liz Brown

Liz Brown has loved horses ever since she was a little girl, long before she went to Ryerson University to study journalism. She was lucky enough to grow up on a horse farm with two ponies, Misty and Frosty. Like Kate in Dark Ryder, Liz always wanted to show a horse at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto, Canada. She finally got the chance in 2002, but didn’t do quite as well as Kate in the competition. Liz now divides her time between magazine journalism and teaching kids how to ride horses.

Shawn Durkin

Shawn Durkin always loved sport. He has also enjoyed writing stories since a very young age. Although he grew up in Canada, Shawn has travelled the world widely. He now lives with his family in Queensland, Australia, where he is a professional journalist. He has written two novels for the High Interest Series: Shola’s Game and Stealing Home.

Lori Jamison

All the Teachers' Handbooks in the Robinswood High Interest Series have been developed and written by Lori Jamison.

Lori is a teacher, curriculum consultant and author. She has written several books and articles on exemplary reading and writing instruction, including Guided Reading Basics and The Write Genre. She was formerly a teacher and Language Arts Consultant for the Regina Public Schools in Canada, and member of the board of directors of the International Reading Association.

Ms Jamison is an internationally acclaimed speaker on literacy issues and is "...a passionate presenter, well-known for her research-based sessions full of teacher-tested and student-friendly strategies." (Staff Development for Educators, 2007.)

Sharon Jennings

Sharon Jennings is the author of more than fifteen books for young people. Her first success was a picture book, Jeremiah and Mrs Ming, illustrated by Mireille Levert. Since then, Sharon has written a number of other picture books, including Priscilla and Rosy and Priscilla's Pas de Deux, both illustrated by Linda Hendry.

Sharon says "There is nothing I like to do more than write. I become the characters and live inside their story." She has also written several ‘Bat Gang’ stories, including Bats in the Graveyard, Bats Past Midnight and Bat-Napped, all published in the High Interest Series by Robinswood in the UK.

Alex Kropp

Alex Kropp is the author of a number of short stories and non-fiction works used by publishers such as Scholastic in their educational programmes. He has also designed several workbooks, and written the activity-book materials for CBC’s Mr. Dressup project.

Alex became interested in computers from a young age, playing games on an ancient Atari 800 and then programming in Windows using Basic and C languages. He took his diploma as a systems analyst from Seneca College and now works for IBM in Toronto, Canada. Hacker is his first full-length novel. In this book, he was able to combine his knowledge of computer systems with his love of writing.

Paul Kropp

Paul is the author of many popular novels for young people, writing most of the stories in the two High Interest series now available through Robinswood.

Paul's work includes six award-winning young adult novels, many other High Interest novels, and a considerable number of texts for adults and also younger children. His books for young adults – Moonkid and Prometheus and Moonkid and Liberty – have been translated into many languages, including German, Danish, French, Portuguese and Spanish, and won awards across the globe.

Paul is the General Editor of the two High Interest series. With the publication of the revised editions of the High Interest novels by Robinswood Press, Paul Kropp's expertise in providing exciting reading, with the reading level carefully controlled, is now extended to a wider audience of English-speakers in the UK, Ireland and beyond.

Paul was born in the 1940's in Buffalo, and studied at Columbia University, both in New York, and later at the University of Western Ontario. Having taught for many years in Canada, he now lives in an 1889 town-house in Toronto's Cabbagetown district with his wife, Lori Jamison. Both Paul and Lori are popular speakers and lecturers for teachers and librarians on issues related to reading throughout North America.

Doug Paton

Doug Paton is a young author and journalist whose interests range from travel to politics to comic books. Doug completed a short fantasy novel at the age of eleven and continued to write throughout high school. He has a degree in journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. Doug’s first novel was Terror 9/11, based on the World Trade Center disaster. That book has been well received in both Canada and the United States. Our Plane is Down is his second novel.