Derrick Barnes (derrickbarnes.com) is the author of Like Lava in My Veins ; New York Times bestsellers The Queen of Kindergarten , The King of Kindergarten , and I Am Every Good Thing , which won the NCTE Charlotte Huck Award and the Kirkus Prize; and Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut , which received a Newbery Honor, a Coretta Scott King Honor, the Kirkus Prize, and the Ezra Jack Keats Award. He also wrote the bestselling chapter book series Ruby and the Booker Boys . He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife and their four sons. Gordon C. James (gordoncjames.com) illustrated the critically acclaimed picture book Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut (by Derrick Barnes), which received a Caldecott Honor, a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor, an Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Honor, the Kirkus Prize, and a Society of Illustrators Gold Medal. He also illustrated Let 'Er Buck!: George Fletcher, the People's Champion (by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson).

He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife and two children.