Rebecca Van Slyke is the author of many picture books, including Lexie the Word Wrangler, Mom School and Dad School, Lana Lynn Howls at the Moon, and more. Her books have received multiple starred reviews, and have been chosen for spotlighting by Junior Library Guild, CBC Hot Off the Press, Booklist Lasting Connections, Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Year, and a B&N National Story Time selection. Lexie the Word Wrangler was a Western Writers of America Spurs Award finalist and a Missouri Association of School Librarians Reader Award nominee. Rebecca is a graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts’s MFA program. She lives with her family in Washington state where she is a second-grade teacher.Danielle Ridolfi is a picture book illustrator and scholar. She is the recipient of the 2024 Ezra Jack Keats / Kerlan Memorial Fellowship from the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation. She holds an MFA in Illustration and Visual Culture from the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis and a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Kent State University. She uses collage and printmaking in her work. Danielle’s debut picture book, When the Dark Clouds Come, is due to be published in 2025. Danielle currently teaches college courses about picture book illustration and children’s studies at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and writes about visual culture.
