Derrick Barnes (derrickbarnes.com) is the author of Like Lava in My Veins; New York Times bestsellers The Queen of Kindergarten, The King of Kindergarten, and I Am Every Good Thing, which won the NCTE Charlotte Huck Award and the Kirkus Prize; and Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut, which received a Newbery Honor, a Coretta Scott King Honor, the Kirkus Prize, and the Ezra Jack Keats Award. He also wrote the bestselling chapter book series Ruby and the Booker Boys. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife and their four sons.

Gordon C. James (gordoncjames.com) illustrated the critically acclaimed picture book Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut (by Derrick Barnes), which received a Caldecott Honor, a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor, an Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Honor, the Kirkus Prize, and a Society of Illustrators Gold Medal. He also illustrated Let 'Er Buck!: George Fletcher, the People's Champion (by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson). He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife and two children.