How to Build Your Own Country

Valerie Wyatt is an award-winning author of more than 14 non-fiction books, many of them about science. She also writes on historical topics and, from time to time, picture books. She began her career at OWL magazine in 1978. It was her job to answer readers' questions. Kids would write in and ask, "Do fish sleep?" or "Why can't you sneeze with your eyes open?" To track down the answers, she would interview scientists and write up the answers in ways kids could understand. From there she branched out into books. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia, with her husband and dog, MacPherson, whose favourite food is cucumbers.

Karen Fredericks is an illustrator and cartoonist. Her work appears in major publications from Time Magazine to the New York Times, as well as dozens of smaller publications. Karen lives in New York City and East Hampton, N.Y., with her husband Rick, their two dogs and four very noisy parakeets. Her portfolio of work is online at www.fredrix.com.