Children's author Nancy Blackwell was an elementary teacher for fifteen years. Her experience in early childhood education gave her an intimate understanding of how children learn and see the world. She enjoys sharing her positive and character-building stories with children of all ages. Her love for the outdoors inspires her to write books that help children discover the beauty of nature. She lives in Sunrise Beach, Missouri, at the Lake of the Ozarks with her husband Garry (a beekeeper) and their English Shepherd, Dusty. Charles Ettinger is a freelance artist who spent most of his life in Memphis, Tennessee. He has a background in commercial art, graphic design, comic books, promotional work, and illustrations for children's books. He is very talented and delights young and old as his book characters come alive through his illustrations. His detailed colorful drawings capture and hold the reader's attention from start to finish. I hope you will come to love his work as much as I have. This is the third book we have worked on together.