Early Adventures

Brenda Scott-Royce is a lifelong lover of beasts and books — and whenever possible her work combines the two. For more than a decade, she served as editor ofZoo View, the award-winning magazine of the Los Angeles Zoo. Her books include the comedic novelMonkey Love, about a New Yorker who becomes the temporary guardian of a mischievous monkey. She also wrote several episodes of the children’s television seriesChuggington. Brenda likes to say that she majored in monkeys in college (she earned a bachelor’s degree in primatology and anthropology from California State University, Fullerton) and that some of her best friends are chimpanzees (she worked as a chimp keeper at a wildlife sanctuary). She lives in Covina, California.

Ruth Strother is an award-winning writer and editor whose work has touched children around the globe. Ruth lives in Southern California with her husband, daughter, and two dogs.

Emily Rose Oachs is a graduate of the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities. She currently works as an editor at a Los Angeles-based educational company. In her spare time, she writes nonfiction books for elementary readers. She lives in Los Angeles.

Kaitlyn DiPerna is an award-winning writer, developer, and editor of all kinds of children’s books. Kaitlyn has authored everything from young adult art and craft titles to school textbooks, and children’s chapter books to board books for toddlers. Originally from Boston, where she earned a degree in writing, literature, and publishing from Emerson College, she has spent the last ten years on the West Coast, chasing the surf and the snow. She lives in San Diego, CA.