Susan Campbell Bartoletti Susan Campbell Bartoletti was born on November 11, 1958 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She has written many other books including They Call Themselves The KKK: The Birth of An American Terrorist Group, Hitler Youth: Growing Up In Hitler's Shadow, Black Potatoes: The Story of The Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850, Kids On Strike, and Growin Up In Coal Country. She has won numerous awards including a Washington Post Children's Book Guild Award, Newberry Medal, Sibert Medal and Parent's Choice Award.
Susan wrote The Boy Who Dared after interviewing Karl Heinz Schnibble and Gerhard Kunkel. She was inspired by the work of Johannes Brahms who wrote the German Requim.