CYLIN BUSBY is the author of several fiction and nonfiction books for young readers. Her memoir, The Year We Disappeared--co-written with her father, John Busby--was a Wall Street Journal bestseller, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, and a Cybils Award winner. While living on a farm in Tennessee, Cylin's family kept more than twenty cats in the barn, whose job it was to keep the livestock feed free of vermin. The cat in this book is based on one of those cats--Graybeard--who was born a feeble, sickly runt and went on to become a great mouser. Cylin lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their son. Learn more about Cylin at cylinbusby.com.