Award-winning author Margaret Peterson Haddix has written a number of highly praised novels for young adults and juvenile readers that deal with topics from religious cults and futuristic dystopias to modern-day science fiction and reality-based fiction. Haddix's 1995 debut novel, Running out of Time, a time-slip story with a twist, has become something of a classic of the form, and was adopted for use in middle school classrooms around the United States. Other novels, both fanciful and realistic, from the pen of Haddix include Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey, Leaving Fishers, Among the Hidden, Just Ella, Turnabout, The Girl with 500 Middle Names, Takeoffs and Landings, and Among the Imposters. A former journalist-turned-author, Haddix stumbled into writing for young readers. "In fact," noted a contributor to the Akron Beacon Journal in an interview with Haddix, the author "was trying to 'get discovered' as a short-story writer when she fell into the world of children's literature, much as Alice tumbled down the rabbit hole." With the popularity of Running out of Time, and with several awards to her credit, Haddix decided that this particular rabbit hole was one worth exploring.
