Since early childhood, Anastasia has been drawing, dreaming and inventing stories. She is very fond of reading and travelling, as well as plants and flowers. Now, after graduating from the Academy of Arts, she tries to learn about shape and colour, lightness and movement from nature. Anastasia makes illustrations for books, magazines and games. Books are her greatest love because they are doors that open up new magical and wonderful worlds. She creates most of her illustrations in digital art, trying to bring the feeling and warmth of traditional materials into them.
She is the 2018 winner of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair Silent Book Contest.

Katrina has spent her life surrounded by books ever since her first visit to the library when she was tiny. She now lives in a house full of bookshelves fit to bursting, and continues to fill them with books that she has written.

She recently won Booktrust’s Story Time prize for her and Nick Sharratt’s picture book The Whales on the Bus.

When she’s not writing for children, she is cuddled up with one of her fluffy cats and a good book, or plucking cat hairs off her clothes.

Guilherme lives in Blumenau, in southern Brazil. In 2010, he won a national contest for new children’s book illustrators and has been working with editorial illustrations ever since. After illustrating many books for other authors, Guilherme started writing his own books in 2017. Guilherme’s work has been published worldwide and has received various accolades, including the Jabuti Award and the Golden Pinwheel Grand Award. Guilherme continues to seek ways to entertain and delight children through his art and stories.

Em Lynas is a children’s author with a love of silly poetry and nonsense rhymes. Em has been a primary school teacher and an educational publisher and is now an author of funny picture books. Her book, The Goat and the Stoat and the Goat, was shortlisted for the 2025 Laugh Out Loud Award. She lives by the seaside on the North East coast with her husband, Geoff, and although she did have pets when her children lived at home; hamsters, guinea pigs, a rabbit and a jar of stick insects, she is currently petless.

Louise lives and works in the UK. When she isn’t writing, she works as a freelance acting, life skills and performing arts tutor, teaching students of all ages, abilities and backgrounds.

Tom Froese is an award winning illustrator and teacher. He is passionate about making work that makes people happy. In his work, you will experience a flurry of joyful colours, spontaneous textures and quirky shapes.

As a commercial artist, Tom has worked for brands and businesses all over the world, including Yahoo!, Airbnb, and GQ France. The Castle the King Built is Tom’s second published picture book, the first being Whose Boat? by Toni Buzzeo (Abrams Appleseed, 2018).

Originally from the Toronto area, Tom graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design with a B.Des (honours) in 2009. He then moved to Vancouver, BC, where he began his creative career and eventually became a family man.

Tom now works from his home studio in the small village of Yarrow, about an hour’s drive east of Vancouver. He lives with his wife Amanda and daughters Nina and Marie – and a funny cat named Blueberry.

Ben Lerwill has been working as a freelance travel writer for over 15 years. His work has appeared in more than 50 national and international publications, from The Sunday Times to National Geographic Traveller. Ben’s passions include the outdoors, music, wildlife, running and reading. He is thrilled that, through children’s books, he can share his enthusiasm about the wider world with young readers. He’s at his happiest when he’s on a long walk and his children haven’t yet pinched all the snacks.

Sarah Walsh grew up in upstate New York. When she was little she was obsessed with animals. So much so that she wanted to be one. Her mom knew this and sewed her an assortment of costumes she could wear all year round. She was also obsessed with drawing and from a very small age knew in her heart she would be an artist someday. If….she worked hard enough and practised. Currently Sarah is an internationally published illustrator with several adult colouring books, children’s board books, activity books, and greeting cards under her belt. She lives with her family in Kansas City. Her work and other notions can be found at Sarahwalshmakesthings.com.

Andrew Donkin has sold over 10 million children’s books and graphic novels, worldwide. His graphic novel, Illegal (co-written with Eoin Colfer), was an international bestseller and has won or been nominated for over 40 book awards. Andrew has written for many global franchises, including Batman, Superman, Doctor Who, and Artemis Fowl. His non-fiction work includes biographies of Roald Dahl, William Shakespeare and Albert Einstein. He loves books, comics, and tea. Andrew lives near the river Thames in London with his family.

Libby VanderPloeg is an artist and illustrator living in west Michigan. She always loved drawing and, growing up, was surrounded by books and stories, as her mother was a storyteller and children’s librarian. On family road trips, she’d study the big atlases as they trekked from state to state, fascinated by all of the layers of information and iconography. After studying fine art in Chicago and working as a graphic designer, art director, and even a cheese monger in Brooklyn, she decided to focus on her lifelong love of drawing and illustration. Her obsession with maps resurfaced, now through her illustration work, drawing dozens of colorful cities across the globe.

Ruth Doyle’s obsession with animals started at an early age. She now lives on Mini Motley Sanctuary with a flock of sheep, eight chickens, three dogs, two rescued miniature horses, six guinea pigs, two rabbits and two grown-up children. Ruth’s debut picture book, Songs for Our Sons published in 2020 with its companion, Dreams for Our Daughters following in 2021.

Alexandra Finkeldey is a freelance artist based in Ottawa, Canada. She uses both traditional and digital mediums to capture her favourite subjects, which include animals, people, plants, and food. Alexandra’s recent picture books include When the Storks Came Home (2022) and Talala: The Curious Leopard Cub (2021).