Award-winning educator Steven L. Layne serves as a professor in the Department of Education at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, where he teaches courses in children's literature. A former president of the Illinois Reading Council and a former member of the board of directors of the International Literacy Association, he travels the world as a literacy consultant, motivational speaker, and featured author. Through his work, he has garnered critical acclaim from USA Today, the International Literacy Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the Milken Family Foundation. Layne is the author of several titles in Pelican's signature Night Before Christmas Series, including Preacher's Night Before Christmas, The Teachers' Night Before Christmas, and The Principal's Night Before Christmas . He has also written two gift books, Verses for Dad's Heart and Verses for Mom's Heart, and three young-adult science-fiction thrillers, This Side of Paradise, Paradise Lost, and Mergers. Born in Temple, Texas, Ard Hoyt is the illustrator of more than thirty picture books, including the New York Times bestseller I'm a Manatee, by John Lithgow, and Steven Layne's Growing with Family Series. Hoyt lives in Arkansas on a small farm with his family.