Christopher Paul Curtis won the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award for his bestselling second novel, Bud, Not Buddy. His first novel, The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963, was also singled out for many awards. Christopher Paul Curtis grew up in Flint, Michigan. He is now a full-time writer, and lives with his family in Windsor, Ontario.

Clare Vanderpool is the author of Newbery Medal winner Moon Over Manifest and Printz Honor book Navigating Early. She lives in Kansas with her husband and their four children.

Rebecca Stead is the author of When You Reach Me, which was a New York Times bestseller and winner of the Newbery Medal and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction; Liar & Spy, which was also a New York Times bestseller, won the Guardian Prize for Children's Fiction, and was on multiple state master lists and best of the year lists; Goodbye Stranger, which was a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book for Fiction and a New York Times bestseller; and most recently, The List of Things That Will Not Change. She is also the author of First Light, which was nominated for many state awards. She lives in New York City with her family.