Susan Cooper is a world-renowned author of children's books. Born and brought up in England, she worked as a journalist before moving to America, where she now lives.

Her classic The Dark Is Rising sequence has won the Newbery Medal and was twice shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. Her Boggart titles have won the Scottish Arts Council Children's Book Award and been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the Smarties Prize.

King of Shadows was also shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. As well as writing novels, Susan Cooper has written for the theatre and for television.

As a kid, Carson Ellis loved exploring the woods, drawing, and nursing wounded animals back to health.

As an adult, little has changed-except she is now the acclaimed illustrator of several books for children, including Lemony Snicket's The Composer Is Dead, Dillweed's Revenge by Florence Parry Heide, and The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart.