Swapna Haddow

Swapna Haddow grew up in the UK and wrote her first book at age eight. She wishes she'd kept it, but it seemed like a good idea at the time to trade it for two stickers and a couple of marbles! Her first published book was the hilarious junior novel Dave Pigeon, which grew into a laugh-out-loud, award-winning series. She has since written many funny, colourful and much-loved picture books as well as further junior fiction series. Swapna loves to write stories filled with boisterous animals causing mayhem, with friendship and humour consistently at the heart of her work. Swapna now lives in Dunedin, New Zealand, with her husband, son and their dog. Her first homegrown tall tale with Scholastic New Zealand is But Then . . . the almost true story of an overdue book.

Minky Stapleton is a multi-faceted illustrator with a range of styles, all with a dash of humour. An award-winning Art Director and Creative Director originally from Johannesburg, South Africa, Minky gave up advertising to follow her first love, illustration. She now resides in Auckland, New Zealand, where she balances illustration projects with running classes for kids on how to design scary monsters. Minky has illustrated many titles for Scholastic, from hilarious picture books to historical fiction and high-energy, heavily illustrated junior fiction.