Elizabeth MacLeod

Dinosaurs, Albert Einstein, cookies, cats, food — these are just some of the subjects of the books I’ve written.

I was born in Thornhill, Ontario, just north of Toronto. After I earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Toronto, I wrote for newspapers, became an editor at OWL Magazine and even worked in the computer industry. Then I became a book author and editor. (An editor is someone who works with writers to help them make their books the best they can be.)

Now I live in Toronto with my husband, Paul, and cats Smedley and Cosimo. I have a special interest in writing biographies, probably because I’m nosy and I like to try to figure out why people do the things they do! Writing this book about Canada at war introduced me to many brave men and women and made me very proud to be a Canadian.

John Mantha

John Mantha is a Toronto-based artist and illustrator. He grew up in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario and graduated with honours from the Ontario College of Art in 1984.

His major commissions include the design of three gold coins for the Royal Canadian Mint, one of which was chosen coin of the year. He has done commemorative pieces

For The Ford Motor Company and the Toronto transit Commission, as well as 34 paintings for The Church of Our lady Of Good Counsel. Other clients have included Fox Television, Imperial Oil, Penguin Books, Annick Press, Kids Can Press and Cottage Life magazine. Working for book publishers, advertising agencies, magazines coporations, television and movies, his work has been seen throughout North America. His paintings, done in oils, have been exhibited in galleries across Ontario and hang in corporate and private collections.

He free lances for Toronto television stations and newspapers as a court room artist.

Thus far, John has illustrated twenty-one books, including the Kids book of Canada’s Railway, which won The Children’s Literature Roundtables of Canada 2001 Information Book Award, and was an official selection for the 2003 Red Cedar Book Awards.

The Kids Book of Canadian Exploration was nominated for the 2006 Hackmatack Award for non-fiction. The Kids Book of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada was nominated for the BC Book Prizes, Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize.

He works in oils and oil-wash. His style is realistic in nature with an emphasis on texture. He lives in Toronto with his wife Leanne, daughter Lauren and Charlotte the cat.