Holly Thompson has lived for many years in Kamakura, Japan, where she raised her children, observed the harvesting of cultivated wakame, and gathered it with her children. Raised in New England, she earned her M.A. in fiction writing from New York University and now teaches creative writing at Yokohama City University. She writes for both children and adults and is the Regional Advisor of the Tokyo chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.