Hazel Hutchins

Hazel was born and raised on the prairies of southern Alberta. As the youngest child she spent quite a bit of time on her own and became very good at thinking up imaginary worlds and imaginary friends. She also enjoyed the many farm animals. She had a horse named Sabu and two goats named Dolly and Babe. There were also wild animals that the family rescued such as crows, baby bunnies, snakes, a bathtub-swimming duck and a pigeon. All the wild "pets" were released once they could take care of themselves. From the time Hazel was little, she loved stories and wanted to be a writer.

Today there are over forty "Hazel Hutchins" titles that show up in various corners of the world. She left the prairies but was lucky enough to live with a wonderful husband in another beautiful part of Canada — a town in the Rocky Mountains. She has three great children (now adults!) and a dog. She loves Jersey Milk chocolate bars and people who are both kind and humorous. She also loves to ski, hike, canoe, bike, birdwatch, read books and — first and always — write stories.

You can vist her web site here: www.hazelhutchins.net

Gail Herbert

Gail Herbert was born in Galt, Ontario, whow Cambridge, and spent her early years in nearby Kitchener. Her father built the first roads in many isolated parts of Canada, and each summer the family would join him. Without any toys or friends to play with, Gail relied heavily on her imagination during those long, lonely summers. Mattland was inspired by those circumstances--playing with sticks in muddy construction sites, creating her own worlds.

As a child, Gail was desperate to start school so she could learn to read. Some of her favourite books were: The Black Stallion, The Bremen Town Musicians, and The Three Billy Goats Gruff.

She always knew she wanted to write stories so she went to Ryerson University where she completed a degree in Journalism. But later she realized that it was more fun to create her own worlds rather than sticking to the facts. Her favourite things to do, besides reading and writing, are cooking and making people laugh.
Gail lives with her husband, Chris, outside Cambridge. They have two daughters, Jessica and Arden, who learned from Gail how to play with sticks in the mud and use their imagination.

It took Gail many years to get a book published, so her advice to kids is to never give up on their dreams!

Dusan Petricic

Dusan Petricic was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1946. He graduated from Belgrade’s Academy for Applied Arts.

For the last several decades, his political cartoons and illustrations regularly appeared at the major Yugoslav newspapers and magazines, and, since 1993, at The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Toronto Star,
Scientific American…

As the co-author or illustrator he created more than 40 books for children, both in Yugoslavia and North America.

For his work he was awarded at the numerous International Exhibitions and Fairs: Tokyo, Amsterdam, Belgrade. Leipzig, Moscow, Budapest, Ankara, New York, Toronto, Montreal, Philadelphia, Skopje…

Dusan Petricic was a professor of illustration and animation at the Belgarde’s Academy for Applied Arts and Sheridan College, Oakville, Canada.Since 1993 he lives in Toronto, together wit his wife Dragana and daughter Mihaila.