The Kung Fu Puzzle: A Mystery with Time and Temperature

Melinda Thielbar is a writer, teacher, statistician, and student of the martial arts. Manga Math Mysteries, including The Kung Fu Puzzle and The Secret Ghost is her first children’s series. In 2005, Melinda left SAS to finish a PhD in statistics. She was awarded a VIGRE fellowship at North Carolina State University. This fellowship is awarded to students likely to make a strong contribution to education in the mathematics and statistics field. Again, Melinda earned a fantastic reputation in the classroom. Her statistics lectures and examples were known for their ability to hold her students' interest—no easy task in a statistics for non-majors class that's held at 8:00am. Melinda lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband, writer Richard Dansky, and their three cats. She is currently working on the research portion of her PhD.

Der-shing Helmer is a high school biology teacher who originally went to college to learn about reptiles. After she graduated she decided to try teaching instead. In her spare time she likes to write and draw comics and read a variety of books!