As a resident of Virginia, Kathryn Erskine was devastated by the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech. In the aftermath of this tragedy, Kathryn was driven to understand how community and family - particularly families with special-needs children - dealt with this violent event, and how our lives might be different if we understood each other better. In writing Mockingbird and telling the story of Caitlin, a young girl with Asperger's syndrome, she walked into the fragile world herself, and like Caitlin, offers us something "good and strong and beautiful". Kathryn was a lawyer for fifteen years before turning to her first love: writing. She lives in Virginia, USA, with her husband, two children, and her dog, Maxine.

Caitlin misses her brother every day.

Since his death in a school shooting, she has no one to explain the world to her. And for Caitlin, the world is a confusing place. She hates it when colours get mixed up, prefers everything to be black-and-white, and needs to check her Facial Expressions Chart to understand emotions.

So when Caitlin reads the definition of "closure", she decides that's what she needs. And as she struggles to find it, a world of colour begins to enter her black-and-white life...