The Christmas Boot

Award-winning children’s author, Lisa Wheeler has worked many jobs, most of them involving bad smells. “I’ve washed diapers–both baby and adult–, scrubbed toilets, and even spent a few months as the best night-crawler wrangler on a small island.” But her favorite job, hands-down, is writing. “Fresh books are one of my favorite smells—bonus!” Lisa is passionate about children’s books. “I love everything about them!” She’s written over 40 picture books in prose and rhyme, an easy reader series, four books of poems, and creative nonfiction for the very young. “As far back as I can remember, I’ve been a rhymer. Wordplay excites me!” Lisa’s newest books are Dino-Christmas, People Don’t Bite People, Babies Can Sleep Anywhere and The Christmas Boot . Lisa writes her books in southeast Michigan

Jerry Pinkney is one of America’s most admired children’s book illustrators. He has won the Caldecott Medal and five Caldecott Honors, five Coretta Scott King Awards, five New York Times Ten Best Illustrated Awards, the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, and the Society of Illustrators’ Original Art Show Lifetime Achievement Award, and many other prizes and honors. Recently a member of the National Council of the Arts and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he has also served on the U.S. Postal Service Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee. His artwork has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the country, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Schomburg Center, and the Norman Rockwell Museum. Jerry Pinkney lives with his wife, author Gloria Jean Pinkney, in Westchester County, New York.