Phil Bildner is the author of numerous children’s picture books including the Texas Bluebonnet Award–winning Shoeless Joe & Black Betsy, Twenty-One Elephants, The Hallelujah Flight, and The Soccer Fence. He is the cocreator of the New York Times bestselling middle grade chapter book serial, Sluggers. A former middle school teacher in the New York City public schools, Phil spends much of the year visiting schools around the country conducting writing workshops and talking process with students. He lives in Newburgh, New York. Find out more about him at PhilBildner.com.

John Parra is an award-winning illustrator, designer, teacher, and fine art painter. His books have received starred reviews and have appeared on the Texas 2x2 Reading List. He has received the SCBWI Golden Kite Award for illustration, the International Latino Book Award for Best Children’s Book Interior Illustrations, and two Pura Belpré Illustrator Honors for Gracias/Thanks, written by Pat Mora, and for Green is a Chile Pepper, written by Roseanne Greenfield Thong. Find out more about John at JohnParraArt.com.