Jessica Young

Jessica Young is the author of several picture books including My Blue Is Happy (a Charlotte Zolotow Highly Commended Title and recipient of the Marion Vannett Ridgway Award); Play This Book and Pet This Book; and A Wish Is a Seed. Jessica spends her time writing and researching, and doing school visits. Prior to her writing career, she was a teacher for twenty years, and freelanced for a children's book marketing company. She lives with her family in Nashville.

Rafael Lopez is an internationally recognized illustrator and artist. He has illustrated numerous picture books, including Just Ask!: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You by Sonia Sotomayor (winner of the Schneider Family Award); Dancing Hands, How Teresa Carreno Played the Piano for President Lincoln by Margarita Engle (winner of the Pura Belpre Medal); and The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson (a New York Times bestseller) to name a few. He is the founder of the Urban Art Trail movement in San Diego and currently resides in both San Diego and Mexico.