Author-Illustrator Carey Sookocheff was born in Ottawa, but spent her childhood throughout the prairies, moving from Calgary to Maple Creek to Winnipeg. Growing up with a mom who was a librarian and a father who was an avid storyteller, she has always loved to read and create stories. She also grew up loving to draw, often on scrap paper from her dad’s office but also occasionally on the underside of the kitchen table.#Carey graduated from Carleton University with a degree in English literature, studied illustration at the Ontario College of Art and Design, and has been an illustrator for over twenty years. She has illustrated for many publications including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Carey now creates picture books, and has more than ten books to her credit, including the critically-acclaimed Buddy and Earl series, I Do Not Like Stories, What Happens Next, as well as Wet and Solutions for Cold Feet, which she both wrote and illustrated.#Her latest book, Lost Things, was inspired by the many things Carey has lost over the years, including a pair of tiny Barbie ballet slippers, her wallet, house keys, glasses and her patience. She has also found many things, including a compass, a small brass bell and more than one lost dog.#Carey teaches part time in the Bachelor of Illustration program at Sheridan College. She lives in Toronto, with her husband, two kids and their dog Rosie, and is often on the lookout for lost things.#Instagram: @csookocheff~Twitter: @CareySookocheff~Facebook: @CareySookocheffIllustration

Monica Arnaldo grew up in Ottawa, Ontario, in the strangest house on the block by far, where her bedtime was eight o’clock sharp. Of course, she could often be found awake well past that time, reading and drawing in some poorly hidden corner of her bedroom.~ ~When she grew up, she studied illustration at Sheridan College where she became passionate about visual storytelling and fell in love with picture books all over again. She works both traditionally and digitally when she’s illustrating, combining watercolor, pencil crayons and Photoshop to create images full of character.~ ~Monica is the author of several picture books, and her illustrations have also appeared in middle grade novels and children’s magazines. She now lives with her family in a very normal house near Montreal, Quebec, and has become a big fan of bedtime.~Twitter: @monicarnaldo~Instagram: @monicarnaldo

Rachel Katstaller is originally from tiny tropical El Salvador, where she studied strategic design. After a period in New York, where she attended the Summer Residency in Illustration at the School of Visual Arts, Rachel relocated to the Alps, together with her cat Hemingway, in order to pursue her lifelong dream of illustrating children’s books. Rachel now works for several international publishing houses and also has her own apparel brand, Las Furias. Hemingway still remains skeptical about the cold weather and lack of palm trees to climb.~Instagram: @rachelkatstaller

Laurel Molk used to sell her drawings to her neighbors. The going rate was a penny a drawing or six for a nickel. Later she went on to pursue drawing at RISD. After many years of freelance work, including designing athletic shoes and athletic wear, and creating windows on Newbury Street, she directed her energy toward illustrating and writing children’s books. She has published several books and has exhibited in shows at the Society of Illustrators.#In her spare time, she knits and rambles through the woods with her dog. But not at the same time.#Things she likes include chocolate in any form, dogs and Paris. She does not like mosquitoes, long meetings or the color pink (with the exception of pink bubble gum).#She lives near Boston with her family, a big black dog, a flock of ducks and, unfortunately, many mosquitoes.