A highly acclaimed writer for young readers, Ann Cameron has turned the chapter book into something of an art form with her sprightly tales of Julian, his brother Huey, and their friend Gloria. As a critic for Kirkus Reviews noted in a 2002 review, Cameron has made it "her mission to impart life information to middle-graders." With the 2003 publication of Colibri, Cameron turned to more serious themes with a novel of kidnapping and abuse set in the lush Guatemalan countryside. A finalist for the National Book Award, Cameron has been a resident of a highland village in Guatemala for more than two decades. "I try to write about characters who have inner abundance--sympathy, imagination, inventiveness, hope, intelligence--and who make happy lives despite modest outer resources," Cameron once said. Cameron's children's fiction is popular worldwide, and has been published in France, England, Canada, Japan, and South Africa, as well as...