Julian F. Thompson is the author of many award-winning books for young adults, among them Simon Pure, A Band of Angels, Gypsyworld, The Grounding of Group 6, Terry and the Pirates, and Hard Time. He founded an alternative school in northern New Jersey in the early 1970s and has been a champion of teenagers ever since he was one. Mr. Thompson and his wife, artist Polly Thompson, live in Burlington and West Rupert, Vermont.