Mary Kay Carson is an author of nonfiction books for young people. She began her writing career working on the classroom magazine SuperScience at Scholastic in New York City. Carson has been a full-time freelance writer for twenty-five years and is now the author of more than fifty books for kids and teachers about space, weather, nature, and other science and history topics. Her books include a number of titles in Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s award-winning SCIENTISTS IN THE FIELD series, including Inside Biosphere 2, the 2016 Green Prize for Sustainable Literature; The Park Scientists; and The Bat Scientists, an ALA’s 2011 Notable Children’s Books for Middle Readers. Her book Exploring the Solar System was the 2009 recipient of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Children’s Literature Award and the State Library of Ohio selected Beyond the Solar System as a CHOOSE TO READ OHIO book for 2015 & 2016. Carson also writes magazine articles and educational materials for both students and adults and gives presentations at schools and conferences about nonfiction writing, the Underground Railroad, bats, the Wright brothers, the solar system, and other topics. The author lives in Cincinnati with her photographer husband Tom Uhlman in a century-old house surrounded by urban greenspace, deer, hawks, woodchucks, and songbirds. For more information about the author and her books, go to: http://www.marykaycarson.com.