Gary Paulsen was born on May 17, 1939 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. "I'm only a second-generation American. My father's family came to this country from Denmark; my mother's people emigrated from Norway and Sweden. My father was a career military man who served as an officer on General Patton's staff during World War II. He spent most of my childhood years fighting the Germans, and my mother spent the war years working in a munitions plant in Chicago--'Rosie the Riveter' type stuff. I was reared by my grandmother and several aunts. I first saw my father when I was seven in the Philippines where my parents and I lived from 1946 until 1949.

"After we returned to the States, we moved around constantly. I lived in every state. The longest time I spent in one school was about five months. I was an 'army brat,' and it was a miserable life. School...