KENT L. BROWN JR.
Kent is the Editor in Chief of Highlights for Children magazine and has been publisher of Boyds Mills Press since its introduction in 1990. A past-president of the Educational Press Association of America, Kent has served on the publications committee of the International Reading Association and is a member of the National Council of Teachers of English, the American Society of Magazine Editors, and the National Press Club.

Kent was recently appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, a national, non-profit nature education organization located in Jamestown, NY.

CHRISTINE FRENCH CLARK
Chris is the editor of Highlights for Children, responsible for the magazine in all its formats, including HighlightsKids.com, a subscription-based Web site for kids. Her twenty-plus-year career in children’s publishing includes stints as editor of Humpty Dumpty’s Magazine, Turtle, Jack and Jill, and Children’s Digest. She has also written more than one hundred stories, poems, and lesson segments.

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SNEED B. COLLARD III
Sneed has written more than forty-five children’s books about science, nature, and the environment. They include award-winning picture books such as Beaks!, Leaving Home, and The Deep-Sea Floor; riveting middle-grade books like A Whale Biologist at Work and The Prairie Builders: Reconstructing America’s Lost Grasslands; and widely-acclaimed books for young adults such as Alien Invaders: The Continuing Threat of Exotic Species and Monteverde: Science and Scientists in a Costa Rican Cloud Forest.

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CAROLYN COMAN
Carolyn's most recent middle-grade book is The Big House. Her young-adult novel Many Stones was a National Book Award finalist and a 2001 Michael Printz Honor book. Her other novels include Bee and Jacky, What Jamie Saw—a Newbery Honor book and a 1996 National Book Award finalist—and Tell Me Everything. She is also the author of a picture book, Losing Things at Mr. Mudd's, and she collaborated with photographer Judy Dater on Body and Soul, a book of interviews.

Carolyn graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. She has worked as a hand bookbinder, as an editor for Heinemann (an educational publisher), and as a writing instructor at Harvard Extension and Harvard Summer School. She is on the faculty of the Vermont College MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults.

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FLOYD COOPER
Floyd has illustrated more than fifteen books, many of them for such award-winning authors as Virginia Hamilton, Eloise Greenfield, and Patricia McKissack. His illustrations have won a number of honors, including the Coretta Scott King Honor Book recognition for Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea (1994), Meet Danitra Brown (1995), and I Have Heard of a Land (1999). His most recent book is Jump!: from the Life of Michael Jordan (Philomel Books, 2004). Floyd is the illustrator of the artwork for the 2004 National Book Festival.

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PATRICIA LEE GAUCH
Patti is vice president and editor at large of Philomel Books as well as a respected author in her own right. She holds a doctorate in English literature, and has taught children's literature on the college level and reviewed for The New York Times. Patti has edited three Caldecott books, including Owl Moon by Jane Yolen and John Schoenherr, and So You Want to Be President? by Judith St. George and David Small. She has worked with many well-known authors, including Jane Yolen, Andrew Clements, and Brian Jacques.

Patti has written thirty-nine books for young readers, among them the highly acclaimed Thunder at Gettysburg and This Time, Tempe Wick? Her most recent title, Tanya and the Red Shoes, part of the celebrated Tanya ballet series, was published in spring 2002.

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LINDSAY BARRETT GEORGE
Lindsay was born in the West Indies and grew up in New Jersey. After her studies in the Midwest, where she majored in drawing and printmaking, Lindsay returned to the East Coast where she worked as a fine-art printer in New York City. A publishing position working as a designer in a children's book department led to her current passion of creating children’s books. Her fourteenth book, The Secret, (Harper Collins), was published in February, 2005, and her latest, In the Garden: Who's Been Here? (HarperCollins) is due out in spring, 2006.

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ANDREW GUTELLE
Andrew is a writer, editor, and editorial consultant who has participated in the development of many publishing projects for children. He has written non-fiction books for many publishers, including Random House, Putnam, Workman, and Time-Life Books for Children. Andy received five Emmy nominations for his work on the television show Reading Rainbow.

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JUANITA HAVILL
Juanita Havill is the author of sixteen children's books, including Jamaica's Find, a Reading Rainbow Review Book, IRA-CBC Children's Choice, and Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award Winner; Jamaica Tag-Along, an American Bookseller "Pick of the Lists"; and Sato and the Elephants, an ALA Notable in the Field of Social Studies, which has been translated into five South African languages. She is also the editor of Booklove: Creating Good Books for Children in an Age that Values Neither.

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PETER P. JACOBI
Peter is professor emeritus of journalism at Indiana University and a consultant with magazines and corporations, helping CEOs, writers, and editors learn to express their ideas more effectively. His articles have appeared in World Book, The New York Times, Highlights for Children, and others. His two guidebooks, The Magazine Article: How to Think It, Plan It, Write It and Writing with Style: The News Story and the Feature, are standard reference sources for journalists.

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JOËLLE DUJARDIN KIRKLAND
Joëlle is an associate editor at Highlights for Children. She began her career in children’s publishing at Henry Holt and Company. She then spent several years at Carus Publishing Company, where she divided her time between Cricket Books and various nonfiction magazines, including Ask, Muse, and Faces. Joëlle joined the Highlights staff in September 2004.

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DONNA JO NAPOLI
Donna Jo writes for preschoolers through high-schoolers, in a variety of genres from contemporary humor to gothic psychodrama. Her award-winning books include her picture book, Albert, and her novels Daughter of Venice, Breath, Beast, and North. And, since this bio is for writers, she wants you to know she has made every mistake in the book and invented some. It took her fourteen long years of rejection letters to sell anything. So take courage—you never know when the phone will ring.

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MARILETA ROBINSON
Marileta made her first sale to Highlights in 1976 and joined Highlights in 1988 as an assistant editor. Currently a senior editor, Marileta edits fiction and nonfiction for young readers and writes each month’s installment of the popular "TheTimbertoes" feature. She holds a master’s degree in bilingual education and is a regular speaker at SCBWI conferences around the country.

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STEPHEN ROXBURGH
Stephen has been involved with children’s books and publishing for more than twenty-five years, first as an academic, then as senior vice president and publisher, Books for Young Readers, at Farrar, Straus and Giroux; and as the president and publisher of Front Street Books, a small, independent press he incorporated on April 1, 1994. In 2004, Stephen added the title of associate publisher of Boyds Mills Press when Front Street Books became part of the trade publishing division of Highlights for Children.

Stephen has worked with such authors and artists as Felicia Bond, Nancy Eckholm Burkert, Brock Cole, Carolyn Coman, Roald Dahl, Madeleine L’Engle, An Na, Marilyn Nelson, Adam Rapp, Alvin Schwartz, George Selden, Uri Shulevitz, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Garth Williams, and Margot Zemach.

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EILEEN SPINELLI
Eileen is an award-winning author and poet whose work includes the 1991 Christopher Award winner, Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch; Lizzie Logan Wears Purple Sunglasses; When Mama Comes Home Tonight; Sophie’s Masterpiece; Kittycat Lullaby; and Summerbath / Winterbath. Currently, Eileen has eighteen new books under contract.

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JERRY SPINELLI
With titles like Do the Funky Pickle, There’s A Girl in My Hammerlock, and Who Put That Hair in My Toothbrush?, Jerry Spinelli has won the hearts of many young readers. His 1991 release Maniac Magee won the Newbery Medal, and his eighteenth book, Wringer, received a Newbery Honor. Jerry's latest, Milkweed (Knopf), has been called "stunning" by Kirkus Reviews.

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RICH WALLACE
Rich is the author of a number of acclaimed novels for young adults, including Playing Without the Ball, Wrestling Sturbridge, Shots on Goal, Restless, and One Good Punch. His most recent novels are Dishes and Perpetual Check. He has also authored a short-story collection called Losing Is Not an Option and a series of sports novels for middle-grade readers called Winning Season. His columns, profiles, and other features have been published in Highlights, Track and Field News, Runner's World, and other publications. Rich is a former senior editor at Highlights for Children.

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CAROLYN P. YODER
Carolyn is the senior editor of history for Highlights for Children and has written numerous articles on research and writing history for children. She spent a decade serving as the award-winning editor in chief of Cobblestone: The History Magazine for Young People; Calliope; Faces; and Odyssey, which led to her position as assistant publisher of Cobblestone Publishing, Inc., overseeing development of its book division.

Carolyn is currently editor of Calkins Creek Books—the history and historical fiction imprint of Boyds Mills Press, publisher of her book George Washington: The Writer. She also reviews juvenile history books for the Civil War Book Review and has been a writer and editor for the New Jersey Historical Society.

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