Jennifer Armstrong is the author of numerous award-winning picture books and novels. Her works include Hugh Can Do, Chin Yu Min and the Ginger Cat, The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan (a BCCB Blue Ribbon Book), and Black-Eyed Susan. Her first novel, Steal Away, was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, an ALA Notable book, and a Golden Kite Honor book. Other titles include Pockets, Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, Magnus at the Fire, Photo by Brady, and Once Upon a Banana. She lives in New York state.

Owen Smith's illustrations have appeared in Time, Esquire, Rolling Stone, the New York Times Magazine, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, and numerous times on the cover of the New Yorker. Influenced by WPA artists of the 1930s and muralist Diego Rivera, Smith holds a BA from the Arts Center College in Pasadena. He is internationally renowned, and his paintings have been featured in exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Rome, and Milan. His first picture book, Ray Hicks's The Jack Tales, was published in 2000. Owen lives with his wife and two sons in Alameda, California.