Ila Lane Gross lives in Manhattan and has a weekend home in Columbia County, New York, where she indulges her passion for gardening. She co-founded and ran LeAp-- Learning through an Expanded Arts Program--for almost forty years. LeAp serves tens of thousands of students in hundreds of New York City public schools. In her spare time, when not working, gardening, traveling, or raising two sons with her wonderful husband, John, she has written over a dozen educational books for teachers and children.