Dear Komodo Dragon

Award-winning author Nancy Kelly Allen is a retired school librarian who spent her days reading to children and her nights writing for them. Eventually, writing led her down the trail to publication. She has written over forty children's books, including The First Fire: A Cherokee Folktale for Arbordale. Nancy has a master's degree in Education from Morehead State University and a master's in Library and Information Science from the University of Kentucky. Nancy lives with her husband and two dogs in a log cabin in Kentucky.

Laurie Allen Klein has been a freelance artist for nearly 25 years. Over the last several years, she has worked as the on-staff artist for a marine park, where she does everything from painting life-size sea animal murals to illustrating children's activity books. In addition to Dear Komodo Dragon, Saving Kate's Flowers, and They Just Know, Laurie has illustrated The Ghost of Donley Farm, Fur and Feathers, Where Should Turtle Be?, Little Skink's Tail, Solar System Forecast, Meet the Planets, If a Dolphin Were a Fish and Balloon Trees for Arbordale. She was the winner of the Outstanding Pennsylvania Author/Illustrator Award from the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association in 2008 and is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Laurie lives in Florida.