Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, Anna Levine (nee Yaphe) moved with her family to Montreal, Quebec when she was five. After spending her childhood years in Montreal, Anna left home at eighteen and moved to Israel to live on a kibbutz, where she learned to pick apples and work the fields. After a few long months and sore shoulders, she left the fields and went to work in the children's houses. When the war in Lebanon broke out in the 1980s, she continued to work with the children in the bomb shelters.

A few years after her first son was born, Anna and her husband decided to leave the kibbutz and move to Jerusalem, where they could continue their studies. Levine graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, majoring in English literature. In 1989, her second son was born. Two years later, the family moved to San Diego, California, during which time she began writing for children. Levine's first publications were in magazines, including Spider, Highlights For Children, and Cicada. Being away from Israel for those years helped give her the perspective she needed to begin her first novel, Running On Eggs, which was published in 1999 (Front Street/ Cricket Books), and tells a story of a friendship between an Arab and Jewish girl in Israel--a country fraught with political tension. Her first picture book, Jodie's First Dig, will be published by Kar Ben in Fall 2008. Her second novel, Free Fall, also set in Israel, is forthcoming from Greenwillow Books/Harper Collins in Fall 2008.

When she's not writing, Anna teaches English at her neighborhood school. She also serves as Israel's Advisor for The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

www.annalevine.org