Valerie McNeil is a native of Waco, Texas. She holds a master of education degree from Texas A&M University. She has taught as an elementary school teacher in grades prekindergarten through second grade for over ten years in Texas and Maryland. Valerie currently resides in Texas with her husband and their daughter. Cynthia Meadows, a native Texan, draws and paints on anything she can find. Whether it was cartoons on the sides of her homework in elementary school, paintings as Christmas gifts, murals on walls, or illustrations and storyboards for advertising agencies, she has continually decorated the world. Cynthia's desire to look inside characters is the reason she loves to illustrate children's books, to create characters, and to give the reader a positive, often humorous view of life.