Christine Pakkala was born and raised in Idaho. She earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop (Poetry) and was a Fulbright scholar. She's the author of Last But Not Least Lola: Going Green, which earned a starred review from School Library Journal. Jasmine and Maddie earned a spot on School Library Journal's "What Hot In YA" for Summer, 2014. Last But Not Least Lola and the Wild Chicken is forthcoming September, 2014, and Last But Not Least Lola and The Haunted Mansion is scheduled for September, 2015. All titles are from Boyds Mills Press, an imprint of Highlight. Christine, a former English teacher with a passion for punctuation and poetry, now teaches creative writing at the Westport Writers' Workshop. She lives in Westport, CT with her husband, two children and two dogs.