Augusta Scattergood: Hello, my name is Augusta Scattergood, which I think is a pretty cool name for someone who writes children's books. When I was a little girl everyone called me Mary Augusta. New York mane was Mary Augusta Russell, but I took my husband's name. The Scattergoods are mostly Quakers. I used to be a school librarian and in the last school where I worked, the second grade teacher gave her students and assignment, to do a treasure hunt. And one of the questions was to find a teacher whose last name was a compound word. And guess what the answer was? Scattergood.