Paul Fleischman grew up in Santa Monica, California, hearing his father, Sid Fleischman, read his books aloud chapter by chapter, as they were written. They have both won the Newbery Medal, he for The Whipping Boy in 1987 and Paul for Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices in 1989.  Fleischman grew up setting type for his family's hand printing press. After graduating from the University of New Mexico, he worked as a bookstore clerk, library shelver, and textbook proofreader, eventually founding the now-defunct tongue-in-cheek grammar watchdog groups The Committee to Save the Sentence and ColonWatch.  Aside from the Newbery Medal for Joyful Noise, he has received a Newbery Honor for Graven Images, the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction for Bull Run, the California Young Reader Medal for Weslandia, and was a National Book Award finalist for Breakout. In 2012 he was the United States' author candidate for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award for the body of his work.  Fleischman has two sterling sons and a book-devouring stepdaughter, all grown. After sojourns in many parts of the country, he is back in California, living with his wife in Monterey. Source