Betsy Cromer Byars was born in1928. She graduated from Queens College in Charlotte, North Carolina. While she was in graduate school, she began writing articles for The Saturday Evening Post and Look. Byars writes novels for young people. She is an expert at tapping in to the pain of adolescence, using bits of her own experience to flavor her characters. She is author of more than 23 books and has won numerous awards. Her book about a 14-year-old girl and her mentally retarded brother, The Summer of the Swans (1970), won the Newberry Award as the most distinguished contribution to children's literature that year. Other books include The 18th Emergency (1973), The TV Kid (1976), and After… the Goat Man (1995).
Richard Cuffari was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 2, 1925. He won numerous awards for his art work while a student at Madison High School. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army. He graduated from Pratt Institute in 1949. He illustrated his first children's book, The Wind in the Willows, in 1966. During his lifetime, he illustrated over 200 children's books, specializing in historical and non-fiction books. He received several awards including the Society of Illustrators' Citation of Merit in 1969 and 1970 and the Christopher Award in 1973. He died in 1978 at the age of 53.