Margaret Peterson Haddix: Hello. My name is Margaret Peterson Haddix. The Margaret part comes from my great-grandmother. This is a very challenging name to have when I was a little kid because I had trouble saying "r"s, and nobody knew what I meant when I say my name was Margaret.

The Peterson part is my maiden name. Most people assume this means that my ancestors came from somewhere in Scandinavia, but it's actually a derivative of a Swiss name, Bidert, which is spelled B-I-D-E-R-T. Don't ask me how they got Peterson from that. When I was a kid, I was always a little annoyed with my ancestors for trading an interesting name, Bidert, for a boring name, Peterson.

The Haddix part is my married name. People often ask if we're related to Harvey Haddix, who was a great baseball player before I was even born. As far as we know, we are not, unless it was way, way back, like an eight cousin or something.

I hope you read and enjoy lots of books.