Rita Williams-Garcia, author of Like Sisters on the Homefront, was born in Queens, New York. Because her father was in the military her family traveled to Seaside, California. Ms. Williams-Garcia says that she learned to read at the age of two and had read almost all of Dr. Seuss' and Bennett Serfs books by the time she started school. She dates her writing career from the age of four when she was making up rhymes and adventure stories about her sister, her brother, and herself.