Cristina Rouvalis is an award-winning journalist who distills facts about real people into lively features and profiles. Snoopers & Sneakers is her first foray into the wide-open world of fiction.

A long-time fan of Harriet the Spy, she set out to write a book that portrayed in an authentic way her daughter's social turmoil during the middle school years. Meeting her co-author, Lydia Wayman, an autistic adult, inspired the idea of a dual point of view book with a dethroned social butterfly and an autistic cat lover.

Cristina is a Pittsburgher ? what the locals call a Yinzer ? through and through. On days when she is not at home writing a story with two cats on her lap, she can be found biking on one of the region's many scenic trails with her husband, Bill. Her favorite Pittsburgh stories include one for the Smithsonian on the mad search to find a replacement for Mr. Rogers' iconic sweaters and a profile in Pittsburgh Magazine on the doctor behind the Mr. Yuk sticker. She has won more than a dozen journalism awards, including one for a national contest by the American Society of Journalists and Authors.