It Happens in the Month of February

Kay Life received her degree in elementary education at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and her B.F.A. in illustration at The Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. In addition to illustrating Hats Off to Hair! written by Virginia Kroll, Muggie Maggie written by Beverly Cleary (Morrow Jr. Books), Poppy's Chair written by Karen Hesse (MacMillan), and three books for Albert Whitman Publishing, Kay has collaborated with other illustrators for such works as Classic Mother Goose (Running Press). Kay lives in Massachusetts, and is the mother of four and grandmother of six.

Ellen Jackson grew up in Glendale, California, where her mother worked for Walt Disney Studios. Her childhood interests centered around reading. She has traveled in Europe and South America, including the Amazon jungle and the Galapagos Islands. Ellen received her B.A. and Teaching Accreditation from UCLA and her M.A. in Social Sciences at Azusa Pacific College. She worked as a kindergarten teacher for ten years. During her first year of teaching, a classroom shortage forced Ellen to conduct her classes on the playground with makeshift instructional materials. It was the ten years of story time with her kindergartners that inspired Ellen to write her first children's book. Ellen has written and published many fiction and nonfiction books for children. She is also the author of the award-winning Turn of the Century (Charlesbridge, 1998) and Cinder Edna (Lothrop, Lee and Shephard, 1994).