Christine Nöstlinger was born in Vienna, Austria on October 13, 1936. She dropped out of art school in the late 1950s to raise her two daughters. Her first children's book, Fiery Frederica, was published in 1970. She wrote more than 150 books for children including The Cucumber King, Fly Away Home, and Conrad: The Factory-Made Boy. She received numerous awards including the Grand Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic, the Hans Christian Andersen Award for children's literature in 1984, and the inaugural Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2003. She also wrote collections of poetry and journalism for adults. Her recent works include Being a Woman Isn't a Sport, a collection of her newspaper columns, and the memoir Happiness Is a Moment. She died on June 28, 2018 at the age of 81.
