About the Author   Harriet May Savitz has had books published by John Day, Thomas Y. Crowell, New American Library, Franklin Watts, Scholastic, Avon, Bastei Publishers and Little Treasure Books. She is a contributor to the Chicken Soup and the Chocolate Series. Her essays have appeared in Modern Maturity, Mature Years and newspapers around the country. Her book, Run, Don’t Walk, nominated for the California Young Reader Medal, was made into an ABC Afterschool Special produced by Henry Winkler. She is recipient of the PSLA Outstanding Pennsylvania Author Award.

Harriet May Savitz (nee Blatstein) was born on May 19, 1933 in Newark, New Jersey. She married Ephraim Savitz, and attended Upsala College and Rutgers University. She has held a variety of jobs, but always felt that writing was her true calling. Although she had written since childhood, she began to publish after taking a creative writing class. Soon after she began collaborating with her teacher, Maria Caporale Shecktor. Together they wrote two books for children, The Moon Is Mine, and Peter and Other Stories.

In the early 1970's, Ms. Savitz met Charles Blockson, an advocate of wheelchair sports. This relationship, and her friendship with a quadriplegic activist named Edward Davenport, inspired Ms. Savitz to focus her talents on subjects relating to the disabled. She wrote several fiction books about disabled teenagers, including Fly, Wheels, Fly!, On the Move, The Lionhearted, and Run, Don't Walk. Run Don't Walk was adapted for an ABC "Afterschool Special", produced by Henry Winkler. She also wrote several non-fiction books including Consider Understanding Disability as a Way of Life, and two books about the history of wheelchair sports, Wheelchair Champions and The Sweat and the Gold. More information can be found at Savitz's web page www.harrietmaysavitz.com