Claire Freedman   is the internationally bestselling author of over 100 books for children. Claire is probably best-known for her award-winning  Aliens Love Underpants   picture book series (Simon and Schuster).  There's A Spider In This Book  is her first picture book with Macmillan, with more titles in the pipeline. Claire lives by the coast in Essex with her husband and lots and lots of books - but thankfully no hairy spiders!
     
   Mike Byrne  grew up on the Wirral near Liverpool before moving to Wales to study illustrations at Glyndwr University. He began his career as a designer for a greetings card company and then became a studio manager for a licensed stationery designer, before leaving to fulfil his dream of illustrating children's books. Mike now lives in Surrey with his wife, cat and two sons, and spends his days doodling and drawing illustrations fuelled only by tea and biscuits. Mike illustrated the bestselling   Jack's Mega Machines  series for Simon & Schuster and the hugely successful  Sproutzilla v. Christmas  , which was his first book for Macmillan. In addition to illustrating Claire Freedman's texts for Macmillan, he is also working on a new Sproutzilla title.