About the Authors
Jon Scieszka is best known for his bestselling picture books, including The True Story of the Three Little Pigs! and The Stinky Cheese Man. He is also the founder of guysread.com and a champion force behind guyslisten.com, and was the first National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature.
Christopher Healy is an author and a reviewer of children’s media.
Sharon Creech has written more than twenty books for young people and is published in over twenty languages. Her books have received awards in both the United States and abroad, including the Newbery Medal for Walk Two Moons, the Newbery Honor for The Wanderer, and Great Britain’s Carnegie Medal for Ruby Holler. Before beginning her writing career, she taught English for fifteen years in England and Switzerland.
Cathy Camper is an artist, librarian, and the author of the Low Riders in Space series for children. Her work has been published in Cricket, Wired, and Giant Robot magazines. She was a participant in the VONA writers workshop in Berkeley, CA for writers of color, and was a board member on the Arab American Literary Journal Mizna.
Laurie Halse Anderson, New York Times bestselling author, writes for kids of all ages. Known for tackling tough subjects with humor and sensitivity, her work has earned numerous American Library Association and state awards. Two of her books, Speak and Chains, were National Book Award finalists. Chains also made the Carnegie Medal shortlist in the United Kingdom. She lives in northern New York, where she likes to watch the snow fall as she writes. She and her husband, Scot, plus their menagerie of critters, enjoy country living and time in the woods. When not writing or hanging out with her family, you can find her training for marathons or trying to coax tomatoes out of the rocky soil in her backyard.
Ingrid Law is the New York Times bestselling author of three novels for young readers, Savvy,Scumble and Switch. Ingrid’s books have been placed on more than thirty state reading lists, and have earned accolades from Publishers Weekly, Oprah’s reading list, the Todayshow’s Al Roker’s Book Club for Kids, and the Smithsonian. Savvy was named a Newbery Honor Book in 2009. Ingrid is a huge fan of words and stories, of small towns and big ideas. She lives in Colorado, where she writes full-time.
Pam Muñoz Ryan is the recipient of the NEA’s Human and Civil Rights Award and the Virginia Hamilton Literary Award for multicultural literature. She has written more than thirty books which have garnered, among countless accolades, the Pura Belpré Medal, the Jane Addams Award, and the Schneider Family Award. She lives near San Diego.
Lemony Snicket is the pen name of Daniel Handler, the
author of several children’s biographies, including A Series of Unfortunate Events
and The Composer Is Dead.
Eugene Yelchin is the author and illustrator of the Newbery Honor book Breaking Stalin’s Nose. Born and educated in Russia, he left the former Soviet Union when he was twenty-seven years old. He has also illustrated several books for children, including Who Ate All the Cookie Dough? and Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku. He lives in California with his wife and children.
Deborah Hopkinson has written many award-winning author books for children, including Beatrix Potter and the Unfortunate Tale of a Borrowed Guinea Pig. Her picture books include Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building, named an ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Book and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book. Her historical fiction includes A Boy Called Eel, which has been featured on more than a dozen state award lists and was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award.
Jack Gantos has written books for people of all ages, from picture books and middle-grade fiction to novels for young adults and adults. His works include Hole in My Life, a memoir that won the Michael L. Printz and Robert F. Sibert Honors, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, a National Book Award finalist, and Joey Pigza Loses Control, a Newbery Honor book. He developed the master’s degree program in children’s book writing at Emerson College and the Vermont College MFA program for children’s book writers. He now devotes his time to writing books and educational speaking. He lives with his family in Boston.
About the Narrators
Michael Curran-Dorsano is a voice talent and AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator.
Martin Jarvis, OBE, has recorded more than 150 Just William stories for the BBC. These have become international
audio bestsellers. He won the Theatre World Award for his starring role on
Broadway in By Jeeves; his West End
appearances include works by Ayckbourn, Frayn, Pinter, and Wilde. Screen
successes include everything from Stargate
Atlantis, Doctor Who, and Numb3rs to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the Oscar-winning Titanic.
David DeSantos, a native of Los Angeles, is a proud member of Actors Equity Association, having performed at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Rep, Arena Stage, and South Coast Rep, to name a few. As an audiobook narrator, he played Laertes in the Grammy-nominated audio recording of Hamlet. Along with many roles on television and in film, he produces a web series called This Is Why I’m Single.