Miriam G. Martinez teaches reading and children's literature courses at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She is actively involved in the Children's Literature Assembly, the National Council of Teachers of English, the International Literacy Association, and the Literacy Research Association. Her research and publications have focused on the nature of children's literary meaning-making, children's responses to literature, and their understanding of various literary genres and formats. She also conducts content analyses of children's books.

Junko Yokota directs the Center for Teaching through Children's Books and is a professor emeritus of National Louis University in Chicago. Her research focuses on visual narratives in picture books, multicultural and international literature, digital storytelling, and literacy instruction through quality literature. She has held research fellowships at the International Youth Library in Munich, the Prussian Heritage Foundation at the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, and a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Wroclaw in Poland. She has served on numerous awards committees such as the Caldecott, Newbery, and Batchelder; and she has served on international juries such as Bologna, Nami, and the Hans Christian Andersen. She lives in Evanston, Illinois with her husband William Teale.

Charles Temple teaches children's literature, storytelling, writing for children, and international education at Hobart & William Smith Colleges in upstate New York. He is active in the International Literacy Association, the National Storytelling Network, the Society of Children's BOOKWRITERS and Illustrators, and the Comparative and International Education Society. Besides works for children, he has co-authored many books in the literacy and children's literature fields. He promotes children's book development and teaching for critical thinking in many countries AROUND THE WORLD, currently in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania. HE lives with his wife Codruta Temple in Geneva, New York. They have five children, two grandchildren, and a spirited Springer Spaniel named Jackie.