Loren Long is a New York Times best-selling illustrator. Loren has illustrated Watty Piper's The Little Engine That Could and Madonna's Mr. Peabody's Apples. His other New York Times best-selling books include: Toy Boat by Randall DeSeve which won the 2008 Great Lakes Book Award for Children's Picture Book, Angela and the Baby Jesus by the Pulitzer Prize winning author Frank McCourt, and the chapter book series Sluggers that he created with Phil Bildner. Loren's first picture book, Angela Johnson's I Dream of Trains, won the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Golden Kite Award for picture book illustration. His version of Walt Whitman's When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer… was a Golden Kite Honor Book. Recently, Loren has written and illustrated two picture books, Drummer Boy and Otis. Loren lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with his wife and children.
Phil Bildner grew up in the New York City suburb of Jericho, Long Island. He attended Johns Hopkins University where he received his undergraduate degree in political science and New York University School of Law. He was admitted to the bar in both New York and New Jersey. Phil's first love has always been teaching and working with children, so after a year practicing law he decided to pursue a career in education. He went back to school and earned a master's degree in elementary education from Long Island University. Phil's first picture book was published by Simon & Schuster and in 2006 he left the classroom in order to write full time. In addition to his picture books: Shoeless Joe &… Black Betsy, The Shot Heard 'Round the World, Twenty One Elephants, etc. and teen novels: Playing the Field, Busted, Phil is the co-creator (with Loren Long) of The New York Times bestselling chapter book series, Sluggers! In 2010, the final two books in the series hits shelves. In 2007 Phil began chaperoning student-volunteer trips to Hurricane Katrina-ravaged New Orleans. He founded The NOLA Tree, a non-profit service organization, along with his friend Ana Galan and a former student, Indiana Hoover.