TARA LAZAR taught herself to juggle at age ten in hopes of launching a career as a clown. Instead, she was voted class clown in school. Eventually she decided that writing silly stories like The Monstore, Little Red Gliding Hood and most recently, 7 Ate 9: The Untold Story, was better than riding silly unicycles. Tara lives in New Jersey with her acrobatic daughters, strongman husband and hoop-jumping hamster.