Joanna Cole was born in Newark, New Jersey on August 11, 1944. She attended the University of Massachusetts, Indiana University, and City College of New York where she earned a degree in Psychology. Ms. Cole has worked as an elementary school teacher, a librarian, and a children's book editor. As a child, she loved science and explaining things and this is why she started writing children's books. She writes fiction and non-fiction titles. Her most well-known series are the Magic School Bus and the "Body." Cole's books have received a number of honors. A Horse's Body and A Snake's Body were both named Outstanding Science Trade Books for children by the joint committee of the National… Science Teachers Association and the Children's Book Council. In 1982, A Snake's Body was named a Children's Choice Book by the joint committee of the International Reading Association and the Children's Book Council. Both A Cat's Body and A Bird's Body were Junior Literary Guild selections. In 1991, she was awarded the Washington Post/Children's Book Guild Nonfiction award.
Gail Gibbons was born in 1944 in Oak Park, Illinois. She received a degree in graphic design from the University of Illinois. She got a job doing artwork for television shows in New York City. She was eventually offered a job creating art for a children's show, where some of the children asked her if she had ever considered doing a children's books. Her first book, Willy and His Wheel Wagon, was published in 1975. Since then she has written and illustrated more than 170 non-fiction books for children including Nature's Green Umbrella: Tropical Rain Forests.