Ying Chang Compestine is an award-winning author and former food editor for Martha Stewart's Whole Living magazine. She grew up in Wuhan, China during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Ying graduated from Central China Normal University with a degree in English, then earned her Master's in Sociology from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She has taught writing and sociology in both the U.S. and China. Her many beloved books for young people include Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party , which has received over 30 national awards, and A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts , which received a starred review from Publisher's Weekly . She lives in California.

YongSheng Xuan is the acclaimed illustrator of many books for children, including The Rooster's Antlers: A Story of the Chinese Zodiac by Eric A. Kimmel and Ying Chang Compestine's The Story Of. series. He was born in Shanghai, China. As a teenager he studied under the famed Chinese sculptor Zhang Cheren and later attended the Central Arts and Crafts University in Beijing.