Tolan often writes and speaks about exceptionally gifted children. Of particular interest in this regard are her companion novels
Welcome to the Ark and
Flight of the Raven. Such concerns are motivated by personal experience. "My son, who was born in 1972, turned out to be exceptionally gifted," Tolan noted on her author Web site, "and in the process of trying to find him an education that would meet his fairly extreme intellectual needs and generally make sense for who he was, I realized the extent of the problem this country has dealing with its brightest children. By the time I'd learned enough to help my son, I had learned more than most of the educators I encountered about who these kids are, what they're like, and what they need."
A Childhood Filled with Books
According to Tolan's Web site, her earliest memories involve books, "those that were read to her and those she read to herself often late at night with a flashlight under the covers." Born in Ohio and raised in Wisconsin, she early on discovered the magic and joy to be found between the covers of a book. In the fourth grade, she wrote her first story, discovering for herself the magic of such creation, and from that time on she knew she would be a writer.
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