Sheila Turnage

Sheila Turnage is an award-winning children’s fiction novelist best known for the novel “Three Times Lucky.” The debut novel in the “Mo & Dale Mysteries” series was a critically acclaimed work that went on to win the 2013 Newbery Honor. Growing up, she always wanted to become an author right from the first grade when she wrote a great story that her teacher told her was excellent. She believed her teacher and took to heart her words, determined that she was going to become an author. Living in a rural farming community, she also learned a lot from members of her family that were great storytellers. Growing up, she not only learned from them but lived for the weekends the family went to the local library. Among the novels she loved during this time were the likes of “The Hardy Boys” “Tom Sawyer” and “Peter Pan,” which her parents believed were safe yet exciting. But rather than study Creative Writing or something like literature in college, she went on to study cultural anthropology. Nonetheless, she has said that it has been an asset for her writing career since it is a study of realities that made her learn how to think and write about the world around her.