About the Author

Roland Smith is an American author of young adult fiction as well as nonfiction books for children. Smith was born in Portland, Oregon, and graduated from Portland State University and, following a part-time job at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, began a 20-year career as a zookeeper, both at the Oregon Zoo and the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Washington. After working to save wildlife following the Exxon Valdez oil spill, in 1990, he published his first book, , a non-fiction account of the process of animal rescue. Smith continued to draw upon his zoo experiences for other non-fiction titles, including , which won an Oregon Book Award in 1996. In 1997, Smith published his first novel, . The book continues Smith's theme, as teenage protagonist Jacob Lansa follows his biologist father to Africa where the father is researching elephants. The Lansa character also appears in 1999s and 2001's . Other novels by Smith include , about a boy who searches for Bigfoot. , the story of a teenage boy obsessed with climbing mountains, and . In 2008, Smith published the first book in the series titled . Smith's books have won "Book of the Year" awards in Colorado, Nevada, South Carolina, and Florida, as well as in his native Oregon. Smith lives in Tualatin, Oregon with his wife and stepchildren.

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