Shannon Anderson is an award-winning children's book author, TEDx speaker, and national presenter. She loves to do author visits to teach the power of reading, writing, and learning with a growth mindset. Shannon taught for 25 years from first grade through college level, where she wore the hats of literacy coach, gifted coordinator, and adjunct professor. She lives in Indiana. You can learn more about her and her books at [...]

Jacob Souva was born of two loving and artistic parents in Syracuse, New York, and was always drawing things for the sole purpose of having them immortalized forever on the fridge. Thankfully, his Mom and Dad valued the making of art (even if it consisted of random scribbles that would never look like a mandolin-playing platypus, or whatever the topic was at that moment) and encouraged him with kind words.

He later discovered the joy of Maurice Sendak, Bill Peet, and Ed Emberely at the library and fell in love with illustration. All of these early memories of illustration drove Jacob to Syracuse University, where he received his BFA in Illustration. Jacob has a beautiful wife and two amazing sons, and resides in a small countryside community in upstate New York. He loves to make kids laugh and think with his illustration work.

Jacob sketches constantly and finishes his work digitally, placing a lot of emphasis on simple shapes, color, and lots and lots of texture.