Elissa Brent Weissman is an award-winning author of novels for young readers including The Length of a String and The Renegade Reporters. Her debut picture book, Hanukkah Upside Down, illustrated by Omer Hoffmann, was a Sydney Taylor Book Award Honoree. Best known for the popular Nerd Camp series, she and her books have been featured in Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, the Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, NPR's "Here and Now," and more. Originally from Long Island, New York, Elissa spent many years in Baltimore City, where she taught creative writing to young people and adults. She currently lives in Christchurch, New Zealand with her husband and their two children, whose lives she tries very hard to keep offline.