About the

AUTHOR

"Many times, we choose the story we are writing.

... But sometimes, in a rare moment, a story finds us."

— Gaye Sanders, author of THE SURVIVOR TREE

A fourth-grade teacher in the Mustang Public Schools, a suburb of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, author Gaye Sanders makes it a point to share the historic story of the Oklahoma City bombing with her students every year.

Born and reared in Fritch, Texas, a small town in the Texas Panhandle, she earned an associate's degree from Frank Phillips Junior College in Borger, Texas, and a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Oklahoma Panhandle State University in Goodwell, Oklahoma.

She began her teaching career in Houston, Texas, before moving to central Oklahoma in 1985. She taught more than five years in the Putnam City Public Schools before joining the Mustang Public School District in 1991.

An active member of the Society of Children's Writers and Illustrators, she is also a member of the National Education Association and the Oklahoma Education Association.

The Survivor Tree is her first book.

The mother of two grown sons, the author makes her home in Yukon, Oklahoma.