The Backward Bird Dog

Bill Wallace was born in Chickasha, Oklahoma on August 1, 1947. He received a B. S. from the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in 1971 and a M. S. in elementary administration from Southwestern State University in 1974. Before becoming a full-time author, he was a physical education instructor, a classroom teacher, and the principal for the same school he had attended as a child.

His first book, A Dog Called Kitty, was published in 1980. He wrote more than 30 children's books during his lifetime including Danger on Panther Peak, Trapped in Death Cave, Red Dog, Buffalo Gal, Danger in Quicksand Swamp, Beauty, Aloha Summer, Watchdog and the Coyotes, and Coyote Autumn. He also co-wrote seven books with his wife Carol Wallace including The Flying Flea, Callie, and Me; That Furball Puppy and Me; Bub Moose; Bub, Snow, and the Burly Bear Scare; and The Meanest Hound Around. He received Oklahoma's Arrell M. Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 as well as 22 child-voted state awards. He died of cancer on January 30, 2012 at the age of 64.

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