"I began drawing before I could talk," says Gary Allen. "My family always knew I would become an artist, because I constantly drew pictures on the wall as high as I could reach." Gary Allen wen on to study art at the State University of New York College at New Paltz and is now a designer at The Culinary Institute of America In Hyde Park, New York. He lives in High Falls, New York, with his wife and stepson.

Jean Craighead George wrote over one hundred books for children and young adults. Her novel Julie of the Wolves won the Newbery Medal in 1973, and she received a 1960 Newbery Honor for My Side of the Mountain. Born into a family of famous naturalists, Jean spent her entire career writing books that celebrated the natural world.