Jean Craighead George was born on July 2, 1919 in Washington, D.C. She received degrees in English and science from Pennsylvania State University. She began her career as a reporter for the International News Service. In the 1940s she was a member of the White House press corps for The Washington Post. During her lifetime, she wrote over 100 novels including My Side of the Mountain, which was a 1960 Newbery Honor Book, On the Far Side of the Mountain, Julie of the Wolves, which won the Newbery Medal, Julie, and Julie's Wolf Pack. She also wrote two guides to cooking with wild foods and an autobiography entitled Journey Inward. In 1991, she became the first winner of the School Library Media… Section of the New York Library Association's Knickerbocker Award for Juvenile Literature. She died on May 15, 2012 at the age of 92.
Thomas Locker was born in New York City in 1937. In the 1960s, he began his career as a landscape painter. In 1982, he decided to try his hand at writing and illustrating children's books. His first, Where the River Begins, was named one of the 10 best illustrated children's books of 1984 in the New York Times Book Review. During his lifetime, he illustrated more than 30 children and young adult books, several of which he also wrote. Some of his works include John Muir: America's Naturalist, Anna and the Bagpiper, The Ice Horse, and The Man who Paints Nature. The books he worked on have received numerous awards including the Christopher Award, the John Burroughs Award, and the New York… Times Award for best illustration. He died on March 9, 2012 at the age of 74.