Rebecca Caudill has loved storytelling since she was five years old. She published her first book when she was 44. Born in Harlan County, Kentucky, deep in the Appalachian Mountains, on February 2, 1899. She was very active as a student at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. After graduation, she taught English and history in a Tennessee high school. In 1922, she received a fellowship to Vanderbilt University, where she received a master's  degree  in International Relations. 

Rebecca married James Sterling Ayars in 1931, and had two children. In 1937, they  moved to Urbana, Illinois. Rebecca's first book, Barrie and Daughter , was published in 1943.

Ideas for her books came from her childhood; the characters were based on people she knew in the hill country of Kentucky and Tennessee. Her children's books especially brought alive the pioneer era of the 1700s and 1800s.  Rebecca Caudill died October 2, 1985. Her books included Tree of Freedom , a Newbery Honor winner (Viking,1949); Did You Carry the Flag Today, Charley? (Holt,1966); A Pocketful of Cricket (Holt, 1964); and A Certain Small Shepherd (Dell, 1987).