Sheila Keenan earned a Master of Arts degree in English literature from the University of Massachusetts, and has continued studies in comparative religion and history. She is the author of fiction and nonfiction, including The Scholastic Encyclopedia of Women in the United States, which was hailed as “lively and visually exciting” by Booklist and was selected as a Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies (NCSS/CBC). The author and this book were also featured on the Girl Scouts USA Web site. The author lives in New York City and Ocean Grove, New Jersey. She's working on several new book ideas and trying to keep up with her piano lessons.