Per-Henrik Gürth was a graphic designer and illustrator of more than a dozen children’s books, including the bestselling titles Canada 123 and ABC of Canada. Through his work, he shared his great love for his adopted country with little readers from coast to coast.

Pamela Harris loves to read children’s stories. There were stories she knew by heart because she’d read them so often to her daughters. She liked to make up stories for them, too. So she was happy when Kids Can Press asked her to do a children’s book. #Pam wanted her book to be fun to read out loud, with rhythm and rhyme leading through a variety of friendly faces, all illustrating opposites. She wrote the words first and then went out looking for people to photograph. That meant Hot Cold Shy Bold led her to meet new friends. Pam hopes the book will lead children to other fun — making faces, drawing faces, making up stories, singing silly rhymes, or whatever they can imagine.#Pam is mainly known as a documentary photographer, using pictures and words to introduce people and places. Before Hot Cold Shy Bold, her pictures were mostly in black and white. Those projects also involved getting to know people — farm workers, Inuit in the far north, nannies, Newfoundland fishermen, the women’s movement across Canada — and getting closer to her own extended family. Lots of this work was published or exhibited, and some of it is in the National Archives, where everyone can use it.#Pam didn’t study photography — she majored in English Literature and taught herself photography later, while teaching at a high school with a tiny darkroom. Now she uses a digital camera and doesn’t spend time in the dark at all. #Pam has two daughters. You can find them in Hot Cold Shy Bold sitting on either side of a pumpkin. Her mom and dad are in the book, too; you’ll know them by their lovely white hair. Pam still lives in Toronto with her husband, Randy, who isn’t in the book but who makes very funny faces sometimes. Their daughters are grown up, so now Pam has to read stories to herself.

Linda Hendry has been drawing for as long as she can remember. Some of her earliest works can be found on the underside of her mom and dad’s kitchen table — the same table that she and her little sister sat at for hours and hours, drawing make-believe families and filling up endless stacks of pink and green Doodle Pads.#After high school (of course she doodled in her notebooks!) Linda studied Visual Communications at the Alberta College of Art in Calgary. When she graduated, she moved to Toronto and began doing freelance illustrations for magazines, which eventually led to an offer to illustrate her first children’s book. This book was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Illustration award. Now there’s nothing quite like an award to get your career rolling, and 23 years, and over 60 books later, Linda is still drawing for children.~ ~She lives near Eden Mills, Ontario, with her partner Leszek, their twin daughters and a creamy colored, super fuzzy cat who loves to sit on laps — especially if you are wearing black.~ ~Linda’s studio is a lovely old cottage that is across the yard from her house and down by the river. It is a cozy space with shelves full of books, tacky souvenirs and toys that she played with when she was a child. There’s a woodstove to keep things warm in the winter, a big wooden drafting table, a swively chair to sit on, trunks full of artwork, and a big radio and a small television to keep her company while she works. And, of course, there are stacks and stacks of paper pads to doodle on.

Irene Luxbacher graduated from Queen’s University in 1992 with a degree in Art History before studying at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver, British Columbia. Since returning to Toronto in 1994, Irene has exhibited her work while teaching art at the Avenue Road Arts School and consulting at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Learning Through the Arts Program. In 2002 and 2003, Irene curated several well-received children’s art exhibits at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and BCE Place on behalf of Arts for Children of Toronto, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising funds and awareness of the value of art education. Irene is the author and illustrator of The Jumbo Book of Art, which won the 2003 National Parenting Publication Award, and The Jumbo Book of Outdoor Art. Her latest project for Kids Can Press is the Starting Art series, which includes the titles 123 I Can Paint! and 123 I Can Draw!