Anne Laurel Carter lived on kibbutzim in Israel in the early seventies. She returned to Israel in 2005 to teach creative writing in Ramallah and stayed with several Palestinian families while researching family life under the occupation for her novel The Shepherd's Granddaughter. Anne has a Master of Education and currently works as a teacher-librarian in Toronto. She has won the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year Award for Children (for The Shepherd's Granddaughter), and the Mr. Christie's Book Award (for Prairie Sky, illustrated by Alan and Lea Daniel).