Donna Jo Napoli was born the youngest of four children in Miami, Florida in 1948, to a building contractor and a housewife, both of whom were children of Italian immigrants. In many respects Napoli's success is the culmination of the American dream. She recalls, in a personal essay published in Something about the Author Autobiography Series, that there were never any books in her home, but by second grade she had discovered the school library where she soon persuaded the librarian to allow her to visit twice a week in order read more than the prescribed two books per week— beginning a lifelong affair with words. The nature of her father's business—building a house, selling it, then moving to another site nearby—led to Napoli's feeling of not belonging. Always the quiet tomboy, she retreated deeper into the world of imagination...