Brenda Z. Guiberson has written many books for children, including Cactus Hotel, Spoonbill Swamp, Moon Bear, and Disasters. After taking exciting trips that involved a fifty-foot cactus, hungry alligators, and sunset-colored spoonbills, she wanted to create books for children that would be like a field trip. Her books are full of well-researched detail, and she sees this research as an adventure-one that allows her to be a jungle explorer at last. Megan Lloyd read the manuscript for Cactus Hotel and went to the Saguaro National Monument in Arizona herself. "I like to see what I am going to illustrate rather than make it up," she says. Lloyd is the illustrator of many picture books.