Doug Peterson

Doug Peterson is an American author whose wide-ranging career encompasses historical novels, children’s books, graphic narratives, humour and nonfiction. He graduated in journalism from the University of Illinois in 1977, briefly edited a Wisconsin newspaper and then became a science writer at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Peterson has written nearly one hundred books, including more than forty titles connected with the VeggieTales franchise; his VeggieTales book The Slobfather received a Gold Medallion Award. His longstanding interest in history eventually led him towards novels based on remarkable but often neglected real events, particularly stories involving slavery, resistance and African-American history.

Peterson’s North-South series begins with three accounts of the Underground Railroad: The Disappearing Man, based on Henry “Box” Brown’s escape from slavery by mailing himself from Richmond to Philadelphia; The Vanishing Woman, about Ellen and William Craft’s daring journey to freedom; and The Tubman Train, a fictionalised treatment of Harriet Tubman’s life. The series continues into the American Civil War with The Lincoln League, centred on African-American spy John Scobell, and The Dixie Devil, about André Cailloux and the Black soldiers who fought for the Union at Port Hudson. The Puzzle People is a historical mystery spanning the construction and fall of the Berlin Wall, while the Kingdom Come series—Thrones in the Desert and Swords in the Desert—retells the Gospel of Luke through the experiences of fictional witnesses to the life of Jesus.