Isobelle Carmody began the first of her highly acclaimed Obernewtyn Chronicles while she was still at high school. The series, and her short stories, have established her at the forefront of fantasy writing in Australia. She won the The Golden Aurealis for Best Novel for Alyzon Whitestarr and she won the Aurealis Best novel for Younger Readers with A Fox Called Sorrow. Her most recent book is the fifth in the Obernewtyn Chronicles: The Stone Key.

Kate Thompson has published twelve novels for children and three for adults. The New Policeman, published in 2005, won the Whitbread, Guardian and Dublin Airport Authority childrens' book awards, as well as the CBI Bisto award, which she has won a total of four times. Her latest young adult novel, Creature of the Night will be published in June 2008, followed in October by a book for younger readers, Highway Robbery. www.katethompson.info (Photograph curtesy of Random House Children's Books.)