Perri Klass, a pediatrician, is a professor of journalism and pediatrics at New York University. Her most recent novel is The Mercy Rule, and her most recent book of nonfiction is Treatment Kind and Fair: Letters to a Young Doctor. Her short stories have won five O. Henry Awards. She writes regularly on pediatric topics for The New York Times, where her weekly column is called “The Checkup,” and her articles and essays have appeared in many other newspapers and journals, including The Washington Post and The New England Journal of Medicine. She is national medical director of Reach Out and Read, a program that works through pediatric primary care to encourage parents to read aloud with young children. (updated 10/2017)