Sharon Mills Draper is an American children's writer and a professional educator, the 1997 National Teacher of the Year. She is a five-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for books about the African-American experience. She may be known best for the Hazelwood and Jericho series and for her historical novel Copper Sun. Other books include Double Dutch, Out of My Mind and Romiette and Julio, and Stella by Starlight. Draper won the Margaret A. Edwards Award from American Library Association in 2015. The annual award recognizes one writer and a particular body of work for "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature". The judges cited six novels that were published from 1994 to 2007: Tears of a Tiger, Forged by Fire, and Darkness Before Dawn (the Hazelwood trilogy); The Battle of Jericho, November Blues, and Copper Sun.
