Spike Lee is one of the most prominent and influential media figures today. His films include the critically acclaimed School Daze; Academy Award nominee Do the Right Thing; Malcolm X; Clockers; and 25th Hour. Born in Atlanta, Spike attended Morehouse College and NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where he earned his master of fine arts degree in film production. Spike and his wife are the authors of Please, Baby, Please, their first picture book with Simon & Schuster. They live in New York City with their two children.

Tonya Lewis Lee is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Virginia School of Law. As a children's television producer she has worked with Disney, Nickelodeon, and Noggin/The N, where she was the executive producer of the award-winning documentary I Sit Where I Want: The Legacy of Brown v. Board of Education and the critically acclaimed miniseries Miracle's Boys. She is also the author of Gotham Diaries, her first novel.

KADIR NELSON is one of the most talented artists in the field of children's illustration. His work has appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Times, and he worked on the visual development for DreamWorks SKG films Amistad and Spirit - Stallion of the Cimarron. His Thunder Rose, written by Jerdine Nolen, was a Coretta Scott King Honor Book for Illustration, his Ellington Was Not a Street written by Ntozake Shange, received the Coretta Scott King Medal for Illustration and his Hewitt Anderson's Great Big Life, written by Jerdine Nolen, won the 2005 Society of Illustrators Gold Medal. He is also the illustrator of Roslyn and Deloris Jordan's Salt in His Shoes (Fall 2000), Will Smith's Just the Two of Us (Summer 2001), and Spike and Tonya Lee's Please Baby Please (Fall 2002) and the follow up Please Puppy Please (Fall 2005) as well as Roslyn and Deloris Jordan's Michael's Golden Rules.