Hal Gold, a thirty-year resident of Japan, is the author of Japan in a Sake Cup and Unit 731 Testimony, as well as two books written in Japanese and dealing with modern Japanese culture. He lives in Kyoto, where he works as a journalist and columnist.Eleanor Coerr was born in 1922 in Kamsack, Saskatchewan, Canada. Before becoming a children's book author, she was a newspaper reporter, an editor of a column for children, and taught children's literature at Monterey Peninsula College and creative writing at Chapman College in California. Her works include Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, Mieko and the Fifth Treasure, Sadako, and The Big Balloon Race. She died on November 22, 2010 at the… age of 88.
Ronald Himler was born in Cleveland Ohio. He received a degree in painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1960. He held several jobs as a commercial artist before quitting his job and going to Europe. Once there, he conducted independent research at the major museums, including the Louvre in Paris, the Uffizi gallery in Florence, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. In 1972, he illustrated his first picture book, Glad Day and Other Classical Poems for Children. He has illustrated more than 150 picture books for children including The Lily Cupboard by Shulamith Levey Oppenheim, Hook Moon Night by Faye Gibbons, and The Wall and Fly Away Home, both by Eve Bunting. He authored and… illustrated several books including The Girl on the Yellow Giraffe and Wake up Jeremiah. He has won numerous awards including the Silver Medal from the Society of Illustrators, The Christopher Award, the Parents Choice Gold Award, and a Children's Book Council Award. His oil paintings of Native American and western culture have appeared in fine art galleries across the country. His works have been featured in Art of the West magazine and on the PBS television program Arizona Illustrated.