In an interview in Twentieth-Century Science Fiction Writers, Suzy McKee Charnas once said, "My goal is to write stories that engage the mind and embroil the heart, and to write them as entertainingly and as beautifully as I can. Often it's plain hard work; but at its best writing is (like good reading) one of the sublimest forms of play." Charnas has "played" successfully in several genres, including horror, science fiction, and fantasy, earning awards and critical acclaim for her intelligent, witty, and bracing vision of alternate worlds, and allegorically, of our own. Her writings for young adults include the science-fiction trilogy comprised of The Bronze King, The Silver Glove, and The Golden Thread. She is also the author of a young adult fantasy novel titled The Kingdom of Kevin Malone, in which a teenager escapes his abusive father by creating a parallel world in Central Park where...