Johanna Spyri was born in a country village in Switzerland in 1827. Her father was a doctor and she had five brothers and sisters.

Later she moved to the capital Zurich to go to school and she eventually settled there with her husband Bernhard,who was a lawyer. Johanna began writing in 1871 and wrote many stories which quickly became very popular.

Her husband and son both died tragically in 1884, but Johanna consoled herself with charity work and writing, as well as looking after her orphaned niece.

She died in her Swiss village home in 1903. Heidi is Johanna Spyri's best known and most popular novel - it has been translated from German into over fifty languages and over fifty million copies have been sold worldwide.

Illustrator Scott McKowen has created award-winning posters and graphics for theater companies across Canada and the United States including on Broadway.

His work has been exhibited in art galleries on both sides of the border, and in 2002 he curated an exhibition of theater posters from around the world that appeared in Stratford, Ontario, and Ottawa and at the Design Exchange in Toronto.

Scott was also commissioned by the Royal Canadian Mint to design Canada's 2001 silver dollar. Scott lives in Stratford, Ontario.