KIM PARKER

Kim Parker is an internationally renowned textile designer and artist. Her designer rugs, bedding, bath, tableware, fabric collections,and Fine Art are widely distributed and recognized in both the United States and Europe. An exuberant colorist with a highly original style, Kim Parker's work has appeared in the following publications: HOUSE & GARDEN (UK), VOGUE (UK), VOGUE LIVING (Australia), ELLE DECOR, INTERIOR DESIGN, NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, COUNTRY LIVING, ELLE, GRAZIA & CASE da ABITARE (Italy), THE WORLD of INTERIORS, ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST (Germany), METROPOLITAN HOME, THE INDEPENDENT (UK), ELLE DECORATION (UK), THE GUARDIAN (UK), SOUTHERN ACCENTS, OPRAH MAGAZINE, HOUSE BEAUTIFUL, WWD, LICENSE MAGAZINE, LAS VEGAS HOME & DESIGN and HFN.

For more information about Kim Parker, visit http://www.kimparker.tv

RODMAN PHILBRICK

"I started writing when I was about 12," Rodman Philbrick recalls. Now he is an award-winning author of more than a dozen books for both adult and young adult readers. His widely acclaimed young adult novel, Freak the Mighty, has been made into a movie, "The Mighty," starring Sharon Stone.

Before finding success as a writer, Philbrick, who is from Boston, worked as a carpenter, boat builder, and longshoreman. "I kept writing because that's the only thing I really wanted to do," he says. He and his wife, Lynn Harnett - with whom he has collaborated on a number of novels for young readers - divide their time between Maine and the Florida Keys.

For more information about Rodman Philbrick, visit: www.rodmanphilbrick.com

DAV PILKEY

Dav Pilkey has always had a gift for creating funny stories and pictures. When he was young, he was constantly getting into trouble for making other kids laugh. "I was the only kid in school with my own private desk in the hallway, and it was at this desk that I had my first experience creating books. I invented a whole slew of superheroes, including The Amazing Captain Underpants, who flew around the city giving wedgies to all the bad guys. These comic books were a real hit with my classmates; however, they weren't too popular with my teachers. I remember one teacher who told me I'd better start taking life a little more seriously, because I couldn't spend the rest of my days making silly books. Fortunately, I wasn't a very good listener."

Pilkey lives in Portland, Oregon. For more information about Dav Pilkey, visit: www.pilkey.com

PAM MUNOZ RYAN

Born and raised in a culturally diverse family in California, Pam Munoz Ryan became a bilingual teacher, an administrator, and then, with a friend's encouragement, a writer.

She says, "I write about dreams, discoveries, and daring women. I write short stories about hard times, picture books about mice and beans, and novels about journeys. That's part of the enchantment of writing and creating characters - the variety!"

A full-time writer, Pam Munoz Ryan lives in North San Diego County near the Pacific Ocean with her husband, four children and two dogs.

For more information about Pam Munoz Ryan, visit: www.pammunozryan.com

CYNTHIA RYLANT

As a child in West Virginia, Cynthia Rylant never dreamed of becoming a writer. In her free time, she devoured Archie comic books and paperback romances and enjoyed the outdoors. But after taking one college English class, she was, "hooked on great writing… I didn't know about this part of me until I went to college-didn't know I loved beautiful stories." And one night, inspired by the Southern writer James Agee, she sat down and wrote When I Was Young in the Mountains. Named a Caldecott Honor Book and an ALA Notable Book, it was an instant success.

Since that night, Rylant hasn't stopped creating wonderful books. Her stories explore friendship, love, grief, and other mysteries, and often draw on her memories of growing up in Appalachia. "I get a lot of personal gratification thinking of those people who don't get any attention in the world and making them really valuable in my fiction-making them absolutely shine with their beauty."

She lives with her many pets in the Pacific Northwest.

BRIAN SELZNICK

Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator and New York Times bestselling author Brian Selznick graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with the intention of becoming a set designer for the theatre. His first book, The Houdini Box, won the Texas Bluebonnet Award and the Rhode Island Children's Book Award — and launched the career of an amazing talent. Brian continued to write and illustrate children's books, to great acclaim. Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride, illustrated by Selznick and written by Pam Muñoz Ryan, was an ALA Notable book as well as a Book Sense Honor book. The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins was named a 2002 Caldecott Honor Book, and received many other distinctions.

Brain lives in Brooklyn, New York and San Diego, California.

DAVID SHANNON

David Shannon is the prize-winning author and illustrator of many highly praised books for children. Shannon's wonderfully off-beat sense of humor shines through in his exuberant illustrations, and his delight with the consequences of deliciously bad behavior is evident in each of his memorable tales. A house favorite, David Shannon's books bring smiles, they attract review attention and prize publicity, and they mean sales. No, David! Was a Caldecott Honor Book and a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year; David Goes to School was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year; David Gets in Trouble was a long-time New York Times bestseller.

Shannon's editorial illustrations have appeared in The New York Times, Time, and Rolling Stone, and his artwork has appeared on numerous book jackets. Shannon is a passionate baseball fan and softball player. A Washington, D.C. native, Shannon now lives with his wife, Heidi, and daughter, Emma, in Burbank, California.

SUSAN SHREVE

Susan Richards Shreve, the author of nearly 40 books for children and young adults, shares her thoughts about being a teacher, a writer, and a mother: "I think it's a fabulous career for a mother. Your children come first - that's quite clear, and if it's not clear, they make it quite clear," she says. "Having children brings up your own childhood constantly, because as they get older, again and again you find who you were at that point surfacing - a perfect sensibility for writing."

This award-winning author is also a college instructor and the mother of four grown children; she lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband.

JORDAN SONNENBLICK

Jordan Sonnenblick is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and a former Teach For America corps member. He loves teaching middle school English because his students inspire him every single day. Plus, as Jordan says, it’s pretty much the only job that pays you to hang out and read with people you like. For fun, he likes to play and collect way too many musical instruments. He lives with his very supportive wife and two remarkably amusing children in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie is his first novel.

R. L. STINE

I write six days a week. I'II sit down around 9 a.m. in my writing study — which has a skeleton and tribal mask hanging on the wall to provide an eerie atmosphere — and set a goal for myself. When I have accomplished my goal for the day, I am finished. To unwind after work, I play the pinball machine conveniently located in my own apartment.

The best advice I can give to aspiring writers is don't worry so much about writing. Read as many different writers as you can. Soak up the styles. You can learn all kinds of ways to say things. As a boy I read thrillers, Norse legends, Greek myths, Edgar Allan Poe, and baseball stories. Mad magazine changed my life. My own favorite book is Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.

NANCY TAFURI

Nancy Tafuri has been illustrating books for children since the late 1970s. Whether providing pictures for other authors, such as Charlotte Pomerantz and Mirra Ginsburg, or creating her own works, she is praised by critics for her simple yet imaginative art. If I Had a Paka: Poems in Eleven Languages, which Tafuri illustrated for Pomerantz, was selected as a Jane Addams honor book; Tafuri's own Have You Seen My Duckling? was a Caldecott Honor Book.

Tafuri was born on November 14, 1946, in Brooklyn, New York. For the first ten years of her life she was an only child and says that this helped her learn to entertain herself with stories and art.

Tafuri entered the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 1964. Her first job was as an assistant art director for the publishing firm Simon & Schuster. She left two years later and married Thomas Tafuri, a fellow student at the School of Visual Arts.

GREG TANG

Greg Tang can credit some odd-looking dominoes for his newfound career as a children's book author. While tutoring his daughter's class in math, Tang noticed hat the white dots in the dominoes had pencil marks on them, suggesting the children were counting the dots one at a time. Instead, Tang taught the students to search for patterns, to add and subtract groups of dots when calculating the dominoes' value and - VOILA! - a new, more visual and creative way of teaching arithmetic and problem-solving skills was born!

"It's not about teaching math skills," Tang says about his method. "It's about inspiring kids to learn and to have confidence in their own thinking."

Greg Tang lives in Belmont, Massachusetts, with his family. For more information about Greg Tang, visit: www.gregtang.com

MARK TEAGUE

One of Scholastic's brightest stars, Mark Teague has delighted young readers with more than twenty picture books, many of which he has written by himself, including the popular Pigsty and Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School. He cooperated with Jane Yolen on their runaway New York Times bestsellers How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? and How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon?, and with Cynthia Rylant on the beloved and bestselling Poppleton series.

Mark Teague developed his writing and painting talents without formal training but with a healthy dose of imagination. His books tackle common childhood scenarios - nightmare haircuts, messy rooms, and closet monsters - with a wildly inventive combination of humor and eye-popping artwork. "My notebook is full of sketches and scribbles, strange little drawings and phrases that now seem mostly cryptic. That's how it works for me. I go along like that for a while and then it suddenly comes together. In a way, my stories seem more discovered than invented." Teague lives in Coxsackie, New York, with his wife and their two daughters.

WALTER WICK

Walter Wick grew up in a rural part of Connecticut where he loved exploring the nearby woods. His first serious interest in art began with drawing and painting in high school. It was then that his brother, who worked part-time in a camera store, introduced him to the magic of photography.

"Very often, I use special effects to create photographs that are intended to look as if improbable or impossible things happen. To do this, I modify cameras and lights, build sets, and construct models. I also experiment with a variety of materials and make careful observations to learn how things work."

Wick lives in Connecticut with his wife.

DOUGLAS WOOD

Music, books, and nature are three prominent themes in Wood's life. Though he started as a poor reader in elementary school, his second grade teacher, Miss Little, instilled in him a life-long love of books and reading. Raised in a family of musicians, Doug grew up playing violin and piano. In teaching himself to play guitar and banjo, and write songs, he found his own personal form of musical expression.

When Douglas Wood's first book, Old Turtle, was published, it was immediately recognized as an inspirational classic and became an overnight sensation. From a modest first printing of seven thousand copies that sold out in a few weeks, the book continued to have phenomenal local sales. It has since sold more than three-quarters of a million copies and has received many prestigious awards. Among his many honors and awards have been the ABBY Award, International Reading Association Book of the Year, Minnesota Book Award, Midwest Publishers Association Book of the Year, and Parent's Choice Award.

One of the North Country's most experienced wilderness experts, Douglas Wood makes his home by the Mississippi River in rural Minnesota.

For more information about Doulas visit: http://www.douglaswood.com

ELVIRA WOODRUFF

Elvira Woodruff was born in Somerville, New Jersey, in 1951. She wrote her first poem at age 9, and remembers fondly the excitement and joy of creation — feelings with which she has become familiar in the many creative activities she has pursued in her varied life and career. After attending Adelphi and Boston Universities, she worked variously as a janitor, a gardener, a baker, a window decorator, a library aide, and an ice cream truck driver; she also owned a store that sold toys and clothing. Helped by her cousin, author/illustrator Frank Asch, Woodruff began writing for children when she was in her thirties. Though she found the work difficult at first, she discovered that old joyful feeling again, and persevered, publishing her first middle-grade novel, Awfully Short for the Fourth Grade, in 1989.

Since then, Woodruff has written more than 20 books for children, including picture books, historical fiction, and light-hearted fantasy. Research for her books has taken her as far away as Italy, England, and France. Woodruff enjoys making presentations at schools, grabbing the attention of her young audiences with wit, wigs, and a suitcase of wacky props. The mother of two, she makes her home near Allentown, Pennsylvania.

JANE YOLEN

Author Jane Hyatt Yolen was born on February 11, 1939, in New York City. In 1960, Yolen graduated from Smith College with a B.A., and, in 1976, earned her M.Ed from the University of Massachusetts. Throughout school, she wanted to be a journalist, and won many journalism awards, but she thought she was too emotional to do interviews. So, she decided to write books—a good choice, since she is an award-winning author. Her writing includes fiction, non-fiction, poetry, music, and plays for adults, young adults, and children, on subjects ranging from kite flying to vampires. She has spoken about literature at many schools, libraries and conferences, and is well-known as a folk-singer, critic, and essayist. She is married and has two sons, a daughter, and three granddaughters. Yolen's interests include folk music and dancing, reading, camping, politics, and all things Scottish.

Jane and her family live in Hatfield, Massachusetts.