Mary D. Lankford is the former director of library services for the Texas Education Agency and has received many awards, among them the Texas Library Association Distinguished Service Award. The author of informational books for children, including Christmas USA , Christmas Around the World , and Jacks Around the World , she travels across the country conducting workshops on libraries and children's literature. She lives in Austin, Texas.
Karen Dugan has worked on more than twenty-five books, eight with Boyds Mills Press, including If I Had a Snowplow by Jean L. S. Patrick and Tea Party Today: Poems to Sip and Savor by Eileen Spinelli. She lives in North Attleboro, Massachusetts.