Rufus Blasts Off

KIM T. GRISWELL has written about everything from flesh-eating plants to exploding toilets and spends as much of each day as possible reading and writing children’s books. For twenty years, Kim worked in senior editorial and book development positions in children’s and educational publishing, including at Highlights for Children, The Mailbox Book Company, Boyds Mills Press, and Portable Press. Kim has taught writing workshops, visited schools, and done readings of her work across the country. She has published hundreds of short stories, articles, columns, and blog posts, as well as a number of books for educational publishers. She is the author of three picture books about the intrepid pink hero, Rufus Leroy Williams III: Rufus Goes to School, Rufus Goes to Sea (both Sterling and both Oregon Book Awards finalists), and Rufus Blasts Off! She and her husband live in a tiny house beneath a towering redwood in Ashland, Oregon.

Valeri Gorbachev has illustrated more than forty books for children, including his own Big Little Elephant and Skunk’s Spring Surprise by Lesléa Newman. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.