Kathryn Lasky is the Newbery Honor-winning author of over 100 books for children and young adults. Her beloved Guardians of Ga'Hoole fantasy series has more than seven million copies in print, and she is the author of the Daughters of the Sea series and the Wolves of the Beyond series, as well as A Time for Courage and other Dear America titles.

Kathryn has also written a number of critically acclaimed historical fiction titles, such as Beyond the Burning Time and True North. She lives with her husband in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Emily Rodda's first book, Something Special, was published with Angus & Robertson in 1984. It marked the beginning of a career that has seen her become one of the most successful, prolific and versatile writers in Australia.Since then, Emily has written or co-authored over ninety books for children.

Her children's books range from picture books to YA novels, and include the award-winning Rowan of Rin series as well as the outstandingly successful Deltora Quest fantasy series.

A full-time writer since 1994, Emily has won the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year award a record five times and seems to instinctively know what children want to read.

Katherine Applegate is the author of The One and Only Ivan, winner of the 2013 Newbery Medal. Her novel Crenshaw spent over twenty weeks on the New York Times children's bestseller list, and her first middle grade standalone novel, the award-winning Home of the Brave, continues to be included on state reading lists, summer reading lists, and class reading lists.

She lives with her husband, the author Michael Grant, who she co-wrote the Animorphs series with, and their two children in Northern California.