The Night Before the Night Before Christmas

Natasha Wing was born in Milford, Connecticut, in 1960. At the age of 20, she moved to Arizona, where she finished college at Arizona State University in 1982 with a B.S. in Advertising. In 1988, she married Daniel Wing and moved to Northern California, where she worked in advertising for a number of years.

It wasn't until 1991 that she decided to write children's books. Luckily she sold her first book, Hippity Hop, Frog on Top, within 6 months and has been writing children's books and articles ever since. Her second book, Jalapeno Bagels, came out in June 1996 with Atheneum Books. The Night Before Easter, was published with Putnam All Aboard Books. She has also been published in Humpty Dumpty's Magazine, Girls' Life, and Hopscotch for Girls, and has two recipes in Writers in the Kitchen.

Cartoonist, illustrator, writer Mike Lester is the creator of the nationally syndicated comic Mike Du Jour and the author-illustrator of many children books, including the New York Times Best Illustrated Book A Is for Salad. He is the recipient of five National Cartoonist Society Awards and two Sigma Delta Chi Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. Mike and his wife, Regan, live in Florida.