Derrick Barnes is the creator of the New York Times bestselling companion picture books The King of Kindergarten and The Queen of Kindergarten. His graphic novel Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice was a National Book Award finalist and won many other awards. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed, multi-award-winning picture book Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut, which received a Newbery Honor, a Coretta Scott King Author Honor, the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award, and the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers. Derrick currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his enchanting wife, Dr. Tinka Barnes, and their four sons, the Mighty Barnes Brothers. You can visit him online at derrickdbarnes.com.

Gordon C. James is an award-winning fine artist specializing in figurative drawing and a bestselling, award-winning illustrator. He illustrated Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut, which received Caldecott, Newbery, and Coretta Scott King Illustrator honors, and I Am Every Good Thing, which won the Kirkus Prize, among others. He has worked for Hallmark as an illustrator and artist and taught at the University of North Carolina. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.