The rescuer of tiny creatures

Curtis Manley grew up interested in the birds, raccoons, and deer that lived in the woods near his home in western Pennsylvania. But over the years he began watching smaller things more carefully: tiny creatures with many legs--or no legs at all! His favorites include stripy specks, bumbly bees, and fireflies. Curtis lives near Seattle with his wife, their daughter, and a cat who is not exactly a rescuer of spiders. His other books include Shawn Love Sharks and Just Right: Searching for the Goldilocks Planet .

Lucy Ruth Cummins is an author, an illustrator, and art director of children's books. She wrote and illustrated A Hungry Lion, or a Dwindling Assortment of Animals , and Stumpkin . She is also the illustrator of books by other authors, including Truman by Jean Reidy. When she was nine years old, a bee crawled into her sneaker and stung her but she didn't hold it against the bee. She was born in Montreal, raised in upstate New York, and lives with her little family in Brooklyn, New York.