Author Pam Mu�oz Ryan was born in Bakersfield, California on December 25, 1951. She received a B. A. in child development and a M. A. in education from San Diego State University. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a bilingual Head Start teacher and as an early childhood program administrator. At first, she wrote adult books about child development, but soon switched to writing children's books. She has written over twenty-five picture books, novels, and nonfiction books for young readers. The novel Esperanza Rising, winner of the Pura Belpre Medal, the Jane Addams Peace Award, an ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults, and the Americas Award Honor Book, is based on her own… grandmother's immigration from Mexico to California. Riding Freedom has also won many awards including the national Willa Cather Award and the California Young Reader Medal. When Marian Sang, a picture book about singer Marian Anderson, won numerous awards including the ALA Sibert Honor and NCTE's Orbis Pictus Award. She currently lives in Leucadia, California.
Author Joan Holub graduated from college in Texas with a fine arts degree. She illustrated her first published children's book in 1992 and began illustrating full time, shortly thereafter. She sold her first two manuscripts in 1996 and has since become a full time author. She has written and/or illustrated over 130 children's books, including the Goddess Girls and Heroes in Training Series. Her title Mighty Dads, illustrated by James Dean, made the New York Times bestseller list in 2014.