Kurtis Scaletta is the author of several novels for young readers including Mudville, Mamba Point, The Tanglewood Terror, The Winter of the Robots, and Rooting for Rafael Rosales. He also wrote the Topps League series. Scaletta was born in Louisiana, but moved a lot as a kid. He lived in five states and three foreign countries before graduating from high school. One place he lived, Monrovia Liberia, is the setting of Mamba Point which is the only quasi-autobiographical book he has written. He attended the University of North Dakota and the University of Maine before moving to Minneapolis. He now lives in the Victory neighborhood with his wife, son, and three striped cats.