Sylvia McNicoll wrote her first book, Blueberries and Whipped Cream, as a project for a college writing course in order to explore a tragedy that occurred in her own high school. She went on to teach creative writing at that same college for nine years, edit a parenting magazine for another eight years and write 29 more novels for a variety of age groups.

Most acclaimed are her three dog guide fostering stories: Bringing Up Beauty, Beauty Returns and A Different Kind of Beauty, which won and were nominated for many children's choice awards. Last Chance for Paris, her adventure book set on the ice fields of Columbia, explored ecological issues with glaciers before climate warming became a popular issue.

Her recent novel, Crush. Candy. Corpse, tells the story about a teen on trial for the manslaughter of an Alzheimer's patient. Reviewers and bloggers have declared it a must read for all high school students. In her thirtieth book Death Goes Viral, already a blockbuster hit in Norway, Sweden and Finland, Sylvia returns to the theme of life and death and the values our own mortality inspires in us.

What would you do if you only had one week to live? When a skateboarding accident claims 14-year-old Jade's life, she negotiates a one week do-over in heaven.

Will she attempt to improve the world or simply live life full out? Or will she try to cheat fate instead?

"Sylvia McNicoll expanded my horizons with this one-of-a-kind, awe-inspiring, dramatic book, Dying to Go Viral. With a captivating, interesting, and saddening plot Sylvia made this book well worth my time; it's definitely worth the time of day to read."
— Elizabeth (age 15), Reader Views Kids