When she was a child, Katia Raina played at con­struc­tion sites and believed in mag­ic mir­rors. She emi­grat­ed from Rus­sia at the age of fif­teen. A for­mer jour­nal­ist and cur­rent­ly a mid­dle school teacher in Wash­ing­ton D.C., she has an MFA in Writ­ing for Chil­dren and Young Adults from Ver­mont Col­lege of Fine Arts and still believes in magic.