Janet Richards, a former elementary teacher, is a Professor of Literacy in the Department of Childhood Education and Literacy Studies, College of Education at the University of South Florida where she teaches graduate courses in reading, writing, and qualitative methods. Her research interests include devising reading comprehension and writing strategies and investigating changes in education majors′ beliefs and cognitions as they participate in field programs. Richards is Senior Editor of the Journal of Reading Education and has published over 130 articles in scholarly journals. This is her ninth book.

Cindy Lassonde moved to teaching at the college level after over 20 years as an elementary teacher. For the majority of her career, she taught elementary language arts and especially enjoyed teaching children how to improve their writing. Currently, she is Associate Professor at the State University of New York College at Oneonta teaching undergraduate and graduate literacy courses. As Editor of Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning, Lassonde enjoys working with researchers to polish their writing for publication. She has been published widely in professional journals and has written and edited a number of books on teaching, writing, and research.