Justine Fontes was born in New York City. She grew up on Long Island and later graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in English Liternature from New York University. Justine found her first job in publishing while she was a Freshman. She worked at various publishing houses before becoming a freelance writer. At Little Golden Books, Justine met her future husband, Ron Fontes. They started writing together and have written over 500 children's books. Justine and Ron moved to Maine in 1988. Ron Fontes was born in Los Angeles. He grew up in Clarksville, Tennessee, where his mother taught him to read at age 4. By 16, Ron had a science fiction comic strip in the local newspaper. He was a theater major at Austin Peay State University, where he costumed and performed in many shows while working at a printing company to pay for school. Ron went on to act in film before becoming an advertising executive, and he then moved to New York City and worked for Whitman Comics and Marvel. Ron is a prolific artist and co-author of over 500 children's books with his wife, Justine. Thomas Yeates grew up in Sacramento, northern California. He attended college in Utah, Sacramento, the Joe Kubert School in New Jersey. Since then he has been working as an illustrator, focusing on high adventure in the comic book/graphic novel field. He has worked for most of the major companies in that field, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Eclipse, etc. He has illustrated Swamp Thing, Timespirits, Tarzan, Conan, Zorro, myths and legends for Lerner Publishing, and many short stories. Most recently he has illustrated Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars for Barnes & Noble Publishing and is currently illustrating a series of books by the popular writer Anthony Horowitz.