Debbie Freeman is a former elementary teacher who takes great joy in making history come alive through her books. She enjoys reading and researching period history and finding ways to make overlooked history applicable to children and young adults by way of an animal—in this book, it happens to be an army pack mule, who really existed in the late 1800s!

When she isn’t riding her bike or kayaking with her husband in northern Florida, Debbie also makes historical hobby horses and obstacle courses for museums and private contracts. She takes regular trips to the Midwest and Mountain states to keep the Wild West alive, within.