Robert Paul Weston is the author of several internationally award-winning books for children and young adults. His first novel, Zorgamazoo, won the Silver Birch Award, the Audie Award, the California Young Reader Medal, and an E.B. White Read Aloud Honor. His second novel was the hard-boiled fairy tale Dust City, which was a Canadian Library Association Young Adult Honour Book and was shortlisted for both the Red Maple Award and the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Young Adult Mystery. His recent novel, The Creature Department, is shortlisted for the Silver Birch Award.