Clean Up, Up, Up!

Ellen Mayer, author of the Small Talk Books series, is a former Harvard Graduate School of Education researcher and early literacy home visitor. Ellen writes her children's books to entertain and educate both children and the adults who read to them. She holds an MPhil in sociology from Columbia University. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Ying-Hwa Hu and her husband Cornelius Van Wright have illustrated dozens of award-winning books. Their illustrations have been praised by Kirkus Reviews as "bright, detailed and dynamic, vividly depicting . . . characters' facial features and personalities." Hu, who was born in Taiwan, lives in New York City.