Iona and Peter Opie were married in 1943 and worked together for nearly forty years, studying and writing about children's lore and literature, until Peter's death in 1982. Their books together include The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes and The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren. Iona has also edited two nursery rhyme collections for Walker Books, My Very First Mother Goose and Here Comes Mother Goose (illustrated by Rosemary Wells).
Maurice Sendak has created texts and illustrations for more than eighty books, which have sold millions of copies around the world. He has won numerous awards, including a Caldecott Medal for Where the Wild Things Are, and the Hans Christian Andersen Award for his body of work. He lives in New England.