Author Mary Louise Clifford holds a master's degree in education from Virginia's oldest university, the College of William and Mary. During the course of her graduate work, she followed up on a professor's challenge to explain the English intrusion on the Indians to young readers. The result of her research is When the Great Canoes Came, a retelling of American history that is sure to raise cultural awareness. Joyce Haynes, a resident of Pineville, Missouri, has won numerous local, state, and national awards for her illustrations.