Chana Stiefel majored in English and Art History. During journalism school at New York University (where she earned an M.A. in Science & Environmental Reporting), she started writing for kids. Chana had an internship at Scholastic Inc., working on SuperScience Magazine. Later, she became an editor at Scholastic's Science World , a magazine geared toward making science news fun and exciting for kids. She's been freelancing for the past 14 years.

In her formative years, Mary Sullivan spent a great deal of time drawing. Though she received a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin, she considers herself a self-trained illustrator. Ms. Sullivan has shown her work at galleries and coffees shops in Dallas and Austin. She channels her considerable creative energy into projects for Highlights for Children , Scholastic, Innovative Kids, School Zone, Oxford Press U.K., Pearson and many more. Her first picture book for HMH, Ball , was a 2014 Geisel Honor Book.

She lives in Cedar Park, Texas. Visit her at marysullivan.com , and follow her on Twitter or Instagram @sullivandraws.".