Peter Cashwell has been writing, watching birds, and writing about birds for a very long time. He grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where the first stories he wrote for school were about woodpeckers, cardinals, and peregrine falcons, and he saw no particular reason to stop. Though he has published newspaper columns, magazine articles, online essays, and two books (THE VERB ‘TO BIRD’ and ALONG THOSE LINES) for adults, THE AMAZING Q is his first book for younger readers. When he is not writing, he teaches English and history, plays the guitar and piano, and travels to see new birds. He has seen a crow, and a woodcock, and a variety of owls, but he has never yet seen a passenger pigeon. (Or if he has, he is certainly not telling anyone.) He and his wife live in Virginia with their dog, Ripley.