Ali Sparkes

Alison Sparkes (born 1966) is a British children's author. She is best known for her Shapeshifter book series.

Career
Sparkes previously worked as a journalist for the Southern Daily Echo and for BBC Radio Solent before focusing on writing children's books.

She published her first book, Finding the Fox, with Oxford University Press in 2006. It became the first of the six-book Shapeshifter series. Later, she published Out of this World, originally released as Miganium, as a prequel to The Shapeshifter. Additionall, her five-book Unleashed series serves as a spin-off/sequel to The Shapeshifter, centered on some of the other Shapeshifter characters.

Sparkes has published several books unrelated to The Shapeshifter series, including standalone novels, as well as the Monster Makers, Night Speakers, and S.W.I.T.C.H. series.

Personal life
Sparkes is from Southampton and attended Bitterne Park School. She is married and has two sons.

The Shapeshifter series (2006-2016)
The Shapeshifter series follows the life of a boy named Dax Jones and is primarily set in England, firstly in the Cornwall area and later in the Lake District. During the first book, Finding the Fox, Dax discovers his ability to shapeshift into a fox, and is whisked away from his hated stepfamily by the government. Dax is one of a number of COLAs (Children of Limitless Ability), young people who possess amazing supernatural powers. Some of his classmates are able to heal, move objects with their mind, communicate with the dead, or see into the future. These children attend a school called Tregarren College in Cornwall, which is later destroyed by a tidal wave, and the children move to Fenton Lodge, in the Lake District.

S.W.I.T.C.H. series (2011-2012)
The Switch books are illustrated by Ross Collins.