Toon Books

When Jeff Smith was growing up in a small town in Ohio, he loved cartooning, but he never imagined all the places comics would take him. With the help of his wife, Vijaya, Jeff created, published, and sold his comic book BONE. Jeff hadn’t created BONE specifically for kids, but his fantastic tale of three cousins lost in a strange land appealed to all readers, including children, and it went on to sell millions of copies. BONE won multiple Eisner and Harvey Awards, and TIME called it one of the ten greatest graphic novels of all time. In 2008, Jeff’s work was the subject of a major museum exhibit at the Wexner Center Galleries in Columbus, Ohio. His other books include Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil and RASL. This is his first book created just for younger readers.

Dave McKean is best known for his work on Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series of graphic novels and for his CD covers for musicians from Tori Amos to Alice Cooper. He also illustrated Neil Gaiman’s picture books The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, The Wolves in the Walls, and Crazy Hair. He is a cult figure in the comic book world, and is also a photographer.

Kadir Nelson is an acclaimed artist and the illustrator of several New York Times bestselling picture books, including his authorial debut We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, which won a Coretta Scott King Award and a Sibert Medal. Kadir has received three additional Coretta Scott King Awards and five Coretta Scott King honors. He has also received two Caldecott Honors, for Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, and has twice received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work.