Susan Vande Griek started writing for children after she had four of her own. She has always been a reader and a sometimes writer though, and had studied English Literature and Education at university. She has been at times a teacher, a library assistant, a gardener, a B&B helper, and a caregiver.#Her interest in art history inspired her to write picture books about Emily Carr (The Art Room) and Tom Thomson (Go Home Bay) to introduce those artists to children. Her enjoyment of birds led her to write Loon – a winner of the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz award and the Norma Fleck award – as well as her latest book about birds in flight, Hawks Kettle, Puffins Wheel.#Susan likes writing poetry and has had some of her poems published in the children’s magazine Cricket.#Born in New York, she spent much of her childhood in Vermont, then moved to Canada as a university student and stayed. She has lived mainly in the Maritimes in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, and Halifax, Nova Scotia, and now, like the birds, migrates between them and Ontario.

Marci Lyn Curtis is a critically acclaimed author of young adult dramedies, including The One Thing. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband.

Cheyanne Young lives in Texas and is the author of several books for teens. When she’s not writing, you can find her sipping coffee and petting dogs.

Susan grew up in a planetarium where her father was the founding director. Her mother was the lady on the children’s tv show Romper Room, and no, she never called Susan’s name either. #Susan met her future writing partner and husband, Mike, at a 45-minute meeting which turned into a 7-hour date, where they bonded over their mutual love of the alphabet. Within weeks, they had begun building a business, a writing partnership (television writing that includes a regional Emmy and now kids’ book writing), and a super-happy life together.#When not writing or producing for television, Susan helps socially responsible brands and people find their purpose and tell stories that change the world. For many years, she was the Executive Director of the Kratt Brothers Brand, helping the creators, producers and stars of such Emmy Award–winning shows as Wild Kratts, Zoboomafoo and Kratts’ Creatures get their message out into the world.#Susan was cast in the Anne of Green Gables film while still in university and went on to work as a professional actor, appearing in Equity stage shows including Agnes of God, Children of a Lesser God and, for some reason, a variety of other shows that had God in the title. She also appeared in such TV shows as Party of Five, The Commish and Highlander.#Her voice is in the Smithsonian, having played a role as a child in an adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s shorty story “The Last Question,” and her work has been selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress. Writing a children’s book is a dream come true, and she is profoundly grateful to everyone at Kids Can Press and to the inimitable, extraordinary and gone-too-soon Sheila Barry for helping to make it happen.~Twitter: @SpikeandToody~Facebook: @SpikeandToody~Instagram: @SpikeToody

Mike is the winner of two regional Emmy Awards for co-creating and writing the TV series Scientastic! He has written TV shows for PBS, Disney XD, BBC, TVO, YTV and CBC, including Franny’s Feet, Pucca, Ranger Rob, the Emmy Award-winning PBS show Zoboomafoo and the Gemini-nominated CBC show SketchCom. He is the co-writer and voice talent of the online animated series, Spike and Toody. He was the recipient of a Harold Greenberg Fund award for his screenplay, The New Adventures of Jason and the Argonauts.#He co-created, story edited and wrote for the TVO kids’ magic series Spellz, winner of the U.S. International Film and Video Festival in Children’s Programming and a Silver Remi at the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival.#Mike also acts, sings and dances, none of them particularly well but that’s not stopping him! He used to be an on-air humor commentator for CBC News until budget cuts saw him replaced by a tree (true story). Mike was raised in a house where books were treasured and he thinks a chocolate chip cookie dunked in milk is the world’s best one-two food combination. His all-time favorite story is I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew. Also, when he was little, he had a cat named Pushkin who followed him everywhere.#Fun Mike Fact: He never gives up. In 1984 Mike submitted his first book to Kids Can Press and received his first-ever rejection letter … There would be many more to come.#I Got You A Present! is his first published kids’ book.~Twitter: @SpikeandToody~Facebook: @SpikeandToody~Instagram: @SpikeToody