MARY POPE OSBORNE is the author of the New York Times number one bestselling Magic Tree House series. She and her husband, writer WILL OSBORNE (author of Magic Tree House: The Musical), live in northwestern Connecticut with their three dogs. Ms. Osborne is also the coauthor of the companion Magic Tree House Fact Trackers series with Will and with her sister, NATALIE POPE BOYCE. Natalie has worked as a children’s librarian and as a teacher of English and ESL.


SAL MURDOCCA has illustrated more than 200 children’s trade books and textbooks. He is also a librettist for children’s opera, a video artist, an avid runner, hiker, and bicyclist, and a teacher of children’s illustration at the Parsons School of Design. Sal lives and works in New York with his wife, Nancy.