Ali Sparkes

Ali Sparkes is a British children's author, born in 1966 in Southampton, England. Before writing fiction she worked as a journalist for the Southern Daily Echo and BBC Radio Solent. Her debut novel, Finding the Fox (2006), was followed by Frozen in Time, which won the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award; she was later shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Wishful Thinking. Sparkes is best known for two long-running series: S.W.I.T.C.H., in which children swap bodies with insects and other creatures, and The Shapeshifter, following a boy named Dax Jones who can transform into animals while hiding his ability from a secretive government agency. She has also written the Unleashed and Destination Earth series for younger readers.