Wendy Mass was born in Livingston, New Jersey on January 17, 1967. She received a B. A. in English from Tufts University. She worked as a book editor at numerous publishing houses in New York City and Connecticut and co-created a teenage literary magazine called Writes of Passage. She has written several nonfiction books for teenagers including Stonehenge, Readings on Night, John Cabot: Early Explorer, and Ray Bradbury: Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Her fiction books include Leap Day, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall, Every Soul a Star, 11 Birthdays, Finally, and The Candymakers. A Mango-Shaped Space won the American Library Association Schneider Family Book Award in 2004. She wrote the storyline for an episode of the television show Monk, entitled "Mr. Monk Goes to the Theatre," which aired during the show's second season. (Bowker Author Biography)

Rebecca Stead won the Newbery Medal for her second novel When You Reach Me in 2010. Her first novel is First Light. Rebecca's third novel, Liar & Spy, won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 2013. She is the first US author to win the Prize. All of Rebecca's novels have received critical and popular acclaim with When You Reach Me, Liar & Spy, and Goodbye Stranger all appearing on the New York Times bestseller list. Ms. Stead's books are published under the Random House Children's book imprint Wendy Lamb. Before committing to a career as a writer, Rebecca was a lawyer working as a public defender. (Bowker Author Biography)