Marc Simont was born in Paris, France on November 23, 1915. His parents were from the Catalonia region of Spain, and his childhood was spent in France, Spain, and the United States. He attended art school in Paris, at the Acad�mie Julian, Acad�mie Ranson, and the Andr� Lhote School, and in New York, at the New York National Academy of Design. During his lifetime, he illustrated nearly 100 books including The Philharmonic Gets Dressed by Karla Kuskin, In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord, How to Get to First Base: A Picture Book of Baseball by Red Smith, and The 13 Clocks by James Thurber. He also wrote and illustrated around ten of his own works including The… Goose That Almost Got Cooked. He won a Caldecott Honor in 1950 for illustrating The Happy Day by Ruth Krauss, a Caldecott Medal in 1957 for illustrating A Tree Is Nice by Janice May Udry, and a Caldecott Honor in 2002 for illustrating his book The Stray Dog. He died on July 13, 2013 at the age of 97.Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman was born in Portchester, England on November 10, 1960. Gaiman worked as a journalist and freelance writer for a time, before deciding to try his hand at comic books. Some of his work has appeared in publications such as Time Out, The Sunday Times, Punch and The Observer. His first comic endeavor was the graphic novel series The Sandman. It is the comic book he is most famous for and the series has won every major industry award, including nine Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, three Harvey Awards, and the 1991 World Fantasy Award for best short story, making it the first comic ever to win a literary award. Gaiman writes both children and adult books. His most recent adult title, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, has won numerous awards, most notably: the British National Book Awards, Book of the Year for 2013, and the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel for 2014 . His other adult books include: Stardust, which won the Mythopoeic Award as best novel for adults in 1999; American Gods, which won the Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker, SFX, and Locus awards; and Anansi Boys. His children's books include The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish; Coraline, which won the Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla, the BSFA, the Hugo, the Nebula, and the Bram Stoker awards; The Wolves in the Walls; and The Graveyard Book, which won the Newbery Award in 2009. He also co-wrote Good Omens with Terry Pratchett.