Tony DiTerlizzi was born in Los Angeles, California on September 6, 1969. He received a degree in graphic design from the Florida School of the Arts and the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale in 1992. He spent six years working as a freelancer for TSR, the publisher of Dungeons and Dragons. His first picture book, Jimmy Zangwow's Out-of-this-World Moon Pie Adventure was published in 2000. He won the University of Chicago's Zena Sutherland Book Award for Ted and a Caldecott Honor in 2003 for The Spider and the Fly. He has written and illustrated numerous books including Adventure of Meno, G is for One Gzonk!, Kenny and the Dragon, and A Hero for Wondla. He met author Holly Black during a… magazine interview on his work for Dungeons and Dragons. Together, they created two series: The Spiderwick Chronicles and Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles. In 2008, a live action adaptation of The Spiderwick Chronicles was made by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies.
Holly Black was born in New Jersey in 1971. She graduated with a B.A. in English from The College of New Jersey in 1994. Her first book, Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale was published in 2002 and was included in the American Library Association's Best Books for Young Adults. She has since written two other books in the same universe, Valiant (2005), and the sequel to Tithe, Ironside (2007). Valiant was a finalist for the Mythopoeic Award for Young Readers and the recipient of the Andre Norton Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. She collaborated with Caldecott award winning artist, Tony DiTerlizzi, to create the bestselling Spiderwick Chronicles. The books have been translated into… over 30 languages and adapted into a film by Paramount Pictures in conjunction with Nickelodeon Films. Her first collection of short fiction, Poison Eaters and Other Stories, was published in 2010. Holly Black's title, The Iron Trial, co-authored with Cassandra Clare, made the New York Times bestseller list in 2014.