Sam the Man & the Rutabaga Plan

Frances O’Roark Dowell is the bestselling and critically acclaimed author of Dovey Coe, which won the Edgar Award and the William Allen White Award; Where I’d Like to Be; *The Secret Language of Girls* and its sequels *The Kind of Friends We Used to Be* and The Sound of Your Voice, Only Really Far Away; Chicken Boy; Shooting the Moon, which was awarded the Christopher Award; the Phineas L. MacGuire series; Falling In; The Second Life of Abigail Walker, which received three starred reviews; *Anybody Shining;* Ten Miles Past Normal; Trouble the Water; the Sam the Man series; The Class; How to Build a Story; and most recently, Hazard. She lives with her family in Durham, North Carolina.

Amy June Bates is the author-illustrator of *The Big Umbrella* and The Welcome Home. She is also the illustrator of the New York Times bestseller *The Leadership Journey* by Doris Kearns Goodwin; *Sweet Dreams* and That’s What I’d Do, both by singer-songwriter Jewel; *Waiting for the Magic* by Patricia MacLachlan; *Joey: The Story of Joe Biden* by Dr. Jill Biden; and many others. She has three children and lives in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with her husband and her devilishly handsome Labrador, Mr. Mochi.