Dan Lester (Author) Dan Lester worked for many years as an editor and has written many books for children Madeleine Marie (Illustrator) Madeleine Marie was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil while her parents were teaching internationally. The family soon moved to a small New England town in Rhode Island where Madeleine still enjoys long walks on the beach with her tiny but formidable Yorkie, Bear. Although Madeleine's initial aspiration as a child was to grow up to be a baby elephant, enough re-reads of Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are" convinced her she would be better suited as a children's book illustrator. She studied both Fine Arts and English at the University of Pennsylvania and Kings College London where she honed her skills as a painter, animator, and digital artist.