Michael O. Tunnell's book titles include Mailing May, The Children of Topaz, and Wishing Moon. He teaches children's literature at Brigham Young University, and he has served on the selection committee for most prestigious award for excellence in writing for young readers, The Newbery Medal, as well as on the selection committee for the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. Tunnell also has published several professional books, including The Story of Ourselves: Teaching History Through Children's Literature and Children's Literature, Briefly, and has written articles for a variety of educational and literary journals. He and his wife, Glenna, live in Orem, Utah. They have four grown children.
Michael O. Tunnell writes picture books, informational books, and novels for primary, middle grade, and young adult readers. Many of his books are about historical topics, such as The Children of Topaz, a non-fiction, photo-essay about the Japanese-American internment camp located in Utah during World War II. It is based on an illustrated diary kept by a third grade class interned during 1943. Other examples include the picture book, Mailing May (illustrated by Ted Rand), which is the amazing true story of a five-year-old girl in Idaho who was mailed by parcel post to her grandmother in 1914 (an ALA Notable Book), and the novel, Brothers in Valor, based on the true story of three German teens who resisted Hitler during WWII (A Junior Library Guild Selection). He also writes fantasy, such as his ghost story, School Spirits. Tunnell's fantasy works also include his "Arabian Nights" novel titled Wishing Moon (Dutton, 2004), which received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews and won the Utah Book Award, and its sequel Moon Without Magic (2007). Candy Bomber: The Story of the Berlin Airlift's "Chocolate Pilot"-a non-fiction, photo-essay about American pilot who dropped candy-laden parachutes to children during Berlin Airlift, was published in 2010 and received a starred review from Booklist. Other titles include the picture books Chinook!, The Joke's on George, Halloween Pie, and Beauty and the Beastly Children, as well as The Prydain Companion, a guide to Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles.
