Kate Banks (1960 - 2024) wrote many books for children, among them Max's Words, And If the Moon Could Talk, winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and The Night Worker, winner of the Charlotte Zolotow Award. She grew up in Maine, where she and her two sisters and brother spent a lot of time outdoors, and where Banks developed an early love of reading. Banks attended Wellesley College and received her master's in history at Columbia University. She lived in Rome for eight years and lived in the South of France with her husband and two sons, Peter Anton and Maximilian. Georg Hallensleben has collaborated on several books with Kate Banks, including The Cat Who Walked Across France, Baboon, Close Your Eyes and The Night Worker, winner of the Charlotte Zolotow Award. Hallensleben lives in Paris.