Margaret Mahy was a New Zealand children's author. Mahy was influential in changing the landscape of children's literature in her homeland and was one of the most prolific authors, penning more than 120 titles.

Her output included poetry, picture books and works for older children, teenage novels, television scripts and stories for magazines and newspapers. Margaret began writing children's books in earnest at the age of eighteen, while training to be a children's librarian in Christchurch.

Her big break came fifteen years later when an American publisher came across A Lion in the Meadow and bought it, along with all the other work Margaret had produced over the years. Margaret became a full-time writer in 1980 and wrote The Haunting, which was the first novel outside the United Kingdom to win the Carnegie Medal. She triumphed again two years later with The Changeover.

In 2006 Margaret was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international honour given to an author and an illustrator of children's books, in recognition of a lasting contribution to children's literature. Margaret Mahy passed away in July 2012.

Susan Cooper is a world-renowned author of children's books. Born and brought up in England, she worked as a journalist before moving to America, where she now lives.

Her classic The Dark Is Rising sequence has won the Newbery Medal and was twice shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. Her Boggart titles have won the Scottish Arts Council Children's Book Award and been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the Smarties Prize.

King of Shadows was also shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. As well as writing novels, Susan Cooper has written for the theatre and for television.