Elizabeth Letts' was born on June 23. Her childhood was mostly spent in Southern California. She loved books and horses, and dreamed of writing books about horses like her idol Marguerite Henry. As a teenager, she was a competitive equestrian three-day eventer and bought and sold horses and horse tack. She was particularly fond of her two horses Kim and Kim's daughter Casey. She attended Northfield Mount Hermon School and Yale College where she majored in History.

After graduating, she joined the Peace Corps, and served for three years in Morocco where she taught English in the northern Sahara desert. She then entered the Yale School of Nursing where she trained as a certified nurse-midwife.

Today she lives with her husband and four children in southeastern Pennsylvania.

The Butter Man

• Junior Library Guild selection
• CCBC Recommended Book
• Charlotte Zolotow Award Highly Commended
• World Storyteller Award Honor Book
• Peace Corps Writers Award
• Africana Award Honor Book
• Middle East Book Award