She writes humorous books for young children and middle grade (upper elementary school) readers.
She also writes educational nonfiction for children under the pen name J.J. Stewart.
She was born in East Patchogue, New York, to a librarian mother and a physicist father.
She received an honors degree in English from Wellesley College, followed by an M.B.A. from the University of Utah.
[3] Her third novel, Close Encounters of a Third-World Kind, is loosely based upon her family's real life adventures working as medical volunteers in the Kingdom of Nepal.