BOORI MONTY PRYOR was born in Townsville, North Queensland. His father is from the Juru people of Cape Upstart from the Bowen region. His mother is a descendant of the Gurubana Moiety group from the Kunggandji Nation near Cairns. Boori is a multi-talented performer who has worked in film and television (as an actor and writer), modelling, sport, music and theatre-in-education. Boori has written several award-winning children's books, including Prime Minister's Literary Award winner Shake a Leg, and was Australia's inaugural Children's Laureate (with Alison Lester) in 2012 and 2013. He co-wrote and is the subject of Wrong Kind of Black (International Emmy Award nominee, screening on Netflix) and Brown Paper Bag (in which he also stars), and during his career as a storyteller he has worked with over one million children. RITA SINCLAIR was born in Mareeba, North Queensland, and grew up a bit further south, in Townsville. As a child, she spent a lot of time daydreaming, drawing and reading, often in a tree or under its branches. Rita blames her mum for her love of all books (especially picture books), because books were a part of every birthday or Christmas. When her son, Cody, was born, Rita was excited to have a reason to buy more books. Now that he is grown up and married, she buys picture books for herself, just because. Rita has worked as an ice-cream and snack bar attendant, greyhound race photographer, wedding videographer, stained-glass overlay operator, teacher, librarian, wedding celebrant and now illustrator. She believes in lifelong learning and is always ready to learn something new - she often has several random courses lined up, and there is always a stack or two of books waiting for the holidays to be read.