Bill Wallace was an American teacher and later an author of children's books. He started writing to quiet down his fourth grade students, who loved his stories and encouraged him to make “real” books. Bill Wallace grew up in Oklahoma. Along with riding their horses, he and his friends enjoyed campouts and fishing trips. Toasting marshmallows, telling ghost stories to scare one another, and catching fish was always fun. Bill Wallace has won numerous children's state awards and been awarded the Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award for Children's Literature from the Oklahoma Center for the Book. Bill Wallace died from Lung cancer on January 30, 2012. Former elementary school teacher; West Elementary School, Chickasha, OK, principal, since 1977, and physical education teacher. Speaker at schools and universities in various states, including State University of New York and University of South Florida. AWARDS: Bluebonnet Award from Texas Association of School Librarians and Children's Round Table and Sequoyah Children's Book Award from Oklahoma State Department of Education, both 1983, Central Missouri State University Award for Excellence in Children's Literature, 1984, and Nebraska Golden Sowers Award from Nebraska Library Association, 1985, all for A Dog Called Kitty; Central Missouri State University Award for Excellence in Children's Literature, 1984, and Pine Tree Book Award, 1985, both for Trapped in Death Cave.