Jean Craighead George was born on July 2, 1919 in Washington, D.C. She received degrees in English and science from Pennsylvania State University. She began her career as a reporter for the International News Service. In the 1940s she was a member of the White House press corps for The Washington Post. During her lifetime, she wrote over 100 novels including My Side of the Mountain, which was a 1960 Newbery Honor Book, On the Far Side of the Mountain, Julie of the Wolves, which won the Newbery Medal, Julie, and Julie's Wolf Pack. She also wrote two guides to cooking with wild foods and an autobiography entitled Journey Inward. In 1991, she became the first winner of the School Library Media… Section of the New York Library Association's Knickerbocker Award for Juvenile Literature. She died on May 15, 2012 at the age of 92.
Wendell Minor is the award-winning illustrator of dozens of picture books, including his own Yankee Doodle America, Robert Burleigh's Into the Woods, and Reaching for the Moon, written by Buzz Aldrin. Mr. Minor's work can be found in the permanent collections of such institutions as the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and the Library of Congress. He lives with his wife, Florence, in Washington, Connecticut. Visit Wendell Minor at www.minorart.com .