C. Dawn McCallum

C. Dawn McCallum grew up telling stories to the trees around her childhood home in Duncanville,Texas. The real "Tree Palace" was cut down in 1985, but still lives in her heart and memory. When she wasn’t outside climbing trees or building forts as a child, she loved to read encyclopedias and watch documentaries. She first dreamed of being an author after reading "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl. At the age of 11, she wrote and illustrated her first "book"—a time-travel mystery called "Travel Through Time.:

 A teacher, writer, and editor, she also spends her time serving causes close to her heart. She is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and has published short stories in national and international magazines.  She lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with her husband and two stepchildren, in a home surrounded by trees.

For more about Dawn, see:  www.CDawnMcCallum.com

THE CARETAKER OF TREE PALACE:  Release date: August 2006 / ISBN:  09764026-3-7 / LIST PRICE: $16.95 / Type: Hardcover, Case bound / Subject: Children’s Chapter / Young artist shares parallel storyline with Mourning doves / Status: Available August 2006.  What do you do you go when everything in your life is changing? Twelve-year-old Doodles retreats to the pages of his ratty notebook where he can draw his own world. After his mother's death, he seeks to see what she called " Tree Palace" in the scraggly woods by his grandma's house. Will he discover Tree Palace before the woods are torn down to be sold for lumber? And if that happens, what happens to the animals who make their homes there?  Can he reach his grieving father, reconnect before it's too late, and save Tree Palace?