Irena Kobald is multi-lingual Austrian immigrant to Australia, who teaches aboriginal children in Australian outback communities (the closest shop is 250 kms away!). The children she teaches use English as a fifth language (many speak several Aboriginal languages).

Freya Blackwood grew up in Orange in New South Wales, Australia. As the daughter of a painter and an architect, she was encouraged to draw from a young age, and produced many illustrated books as a child. She earned a design degree (Visual Communications) at the University of Technology, Sydney and then worked for several years in the film industry in Sydney and Wellington, New Zealand. Many of her books have been translated into other languages and can be read by people all over the world. She now lives back in Orange, New South Wales, Australia with her divine daughter Ivy, their rather naughty whippet Pivot, and four noisy chickens.