Author Theodore Taylor was born in Statesville, North Carolina on June 23, 1921. At the age of seventeen, he became a copyboy at the Washington, D. C. Daily News and was writing radio network sports for NBC in New York two years later. During World War II, he joined the merchant marines and earned a commission as an ensign in the U. S. Navy. He was recalled to active duty during the Korean War. In 1955, he became a press agent for Paramount Pictures and later became a story editor and an associate producer. He has written over fifty fiction and non-fiction books for young adults and adults. He has received numerous awards for his works including the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award for The Cay,… the 1992 Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Young Adult Mystery for The Weirdo, and the 1996 Scott O'Dell Award for historical fiction for The Bomb. He died on October 26, 2006.
JANET S. WONG is an award-winning author of picture books and poetry for young readers. Her picture books include Apple Pie Fourth of July, Hide and Seek, and Buzz, all illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine, and The Trip Back Home, illustrated by Bo Jia. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey.MARGARET CHODOS-IRVINE is the author and illustrator of Best Best Friends and Ella Sarah Gets Dressed, a Caldecott Honor Book. She also illustrated Apple Pie Fourth of July, Hide and Seek, and Buzz, all by Janet S. Wong, Once Around the Sun by Susan Marie Swanson, Only You by Robin Cruise, and My House Is Singing by Betsy R. Rosenthal. Margaret Chodos-Irvine lives in Seattle,… Washington.