Born in 1936 in Morristown, New Jersey, Sandra Scoppettone grew up in the New Jersey suburb of South Orange and attended Columbia High School, Maplewood. This experience directly and indirectly informs much of her writing for young adults. In addition, she has lived subsequently on Long Island and in New York City.

After graduating from Columbia1954, Scoppettone began a career as a writer in New York. Initially she saw herself as a novelist and wrote a number of novels that were not published.

Then in the 1960s she turned to drama and had play and television scripts performed off Broadway and on the television networks. Her career asnovelist resumed in the early 1970s when she used an experience directing teen-agers in summer theater for her first young adult novel. From the late 1980s she has concentrated on the adult detective novel, publishing under own name...