Author Elizabeth Winthrop grew up in Washington, D. C., and has written over 50 works of fiction for all ages. She has won numerous awards including the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the Pen Syndicated Fiction Award, the California Young Readers Medal and the Jane Addams Peace Prize Honor Book. Many of her children's books are based on her childhood memories and the experiences of her children and other children she has talked to. Her book Belinda's Hurricane is based on the time she lived through a hurricane with her grandmother on an island off the coast of Connecticut. I Think He Likes Me is based on her daughter's reaction to her younger brother when he was brought home from the… hospital. Her most popular books are The Castle in the Attic and The Battle for the Castle.
Lillian Hoban was born in 1925 in Philadelphia and educated at the Philadelphia High School for Girls and the Philadelphia Museum School of Art. Hoban was also a student at the Martha Graham School of Dance and, before she became a writer and illustrator, she worked as a dance instructor. Hoban was a prolific writer and illustrator of books for children, including the popular stories about Frances, the little badger, and Arthur, the little monkey. The first two "Frances" stories, Bread and Jam for Frances and A Baby Sister for Frances, were published in 1964. There are three more books in the series. Hoban's first publication was a book she illustrated--Herman the Loser, written by her… husband, Russell Hoban, and published in 1961. In 1962, she collaborated with him again to write London Men and English Men, which she also illustrated. Altogether, she illustrated more than 50 books that she either wrote alone or in collaboration with Russell Hoban and others. The book Charlie the Tramp, also written with Russell Hoban, won the Boys Club Award in 1968. The Hobans' other awards include the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award and the Christopher Award, Children's Book Category, in 1972 for Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas.