The Last Panther

Anne Turner Coppola (September 17, 1938 - June 27, 2012) was born in Redford, New York. Her father died when she was ten, and when she was twelve, Anne was placed in a foster home after her mother was hospitalized with severe depression. She attended D'Youville Academy, a Catholic school for girls, where she wrote a weekly article for the local newspaper and was valedictorian of her graduating class. While in her first year of college, she met her future husband, an airman stationed at Plattsburgh Air Force Base. She received her teaching degree from the State University of New York at Albany and her master's degree from Rutgers University. As a teacher, Anne taught children at all levels: elementary, middle, high school, girls' yeshiva, and special needs children. After battling cancer for eight years, Anne died in 2012. Fly Away Free was one of three stories Anne wrote in 1993, but it wasn't until 2014 that her husband discovered her manuscripts while he was preparing to sell their home. Believing the stories would appeal to young readers and families of adopted and foster care children, he had them published.
Fly Away Free has been Recommended by The US Review of Books, was selected as a Finalist for the 2018 Book Excellence Awards, and was featured in the January 2019 Kirkus Indie Review.