Ben Mikaelsen was born on December 8th, 1952 in La Paz, Bolivia. He is currently 65 years old and lives in Montana. He loves to write children's books and has written many “New York Times Best Sellers” books such as Petey and Touching Spirit Bear. He based his book “Touching Spirit Bear” off of a memory of Buffy, the bear he used to have has a pet.

Ben’s childhood wasn’t very pleasant. According to scholastic.com, He had six siblings and didn’t fit in very well at school. The kids called him “Gringo” because he had a different colored skin then everyone else. They smeared mud on his face because he had a lighter skin color. He painfully grew aware that he was different from the other Bolivian kids. On the other hand his parents were very