The daughter of a geologist and a journalist, J.L. Powers spent much of her childhood camping and searching for fossils in the American West. She grew up on the U.S.-Mexico Border and still considers El Paso home, although she now lives in northern California with her family. Powers is the author of two novels, The Confessional (Knopf, 2007) and This Thing Called the Future (Cinco Puntos Press, 2011), and is the editor of a number of books, anthologies and journals. She is a regular contributor to The Pirate Tree, a blog on social justice and children's literature.Lyn White has been a primary school teacher-librarian and EAL teacher for more than twenty years. She completed postgraduate studies in Editing and Communications at the University of Melbourne, and is passionate about engaging students with quality texts and teachers with quality resources. She is a part-time teacher at Blackburn English Language School and a pre- service supervisor with Deakin University.