Toni Morrison (1931–2019) was a Nobel Prize–winning American author, editor, and professor. Her contributions to the modern canon are numerous. Some of her acclaimed titles include: The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature 1993.

Slade Morrison, a painter and musician, was born in Ohio and educated in New York. He studied fine art at the State University of New York at Purchase. Slade co-authored eight illustrated books for young people with his mother, Toni Morrison.

Pascal Lemaitre is a freelance author and illustrator based in Belgium. His illustrations for children and adult books can be found in the catalogs of many American, Belgian, and French publishers such as L'École des Loisirs/Pastel, L'Aube, Simon & Schuster, Scholastic, and Penguin Books.