Julie Salamon is an award-winning author and journalist. She has been a reporter and film critic for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and her work has appeared in the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Harper's Bazaar, among other publications. Her books include Wendy and the Lost Boys, a biography of playwright Wendy Wasserstein; The Devil's Candy, a behind-the-scenes account of the 1980s box-office flop Bonfire of the Vanities; and, with illustrator Jill Weber, the New York Times bestseller The Christmas Tree, as well as two middle-grade novels, Mutt's Promise an d Cat in the City. Salamon is also chair of the Bowery Residents' Committee, a community organization that provides support for individuals who are homeless and struggling with addiction or mental illness in New York City.

Jill Weber is an artist, illustrator, and freelance designer. She has collaborated with author Julie Salamon on the New York Times bestseller The Christmas Tree and the middle-grade novels Cat in the City and Mutt's Promise. Her other illustrated books include Christmas Tree Farm by Ann Purmell, a Junior Library Guild Selection and New York Times Christmas pick; Higher: A Rosh Hashanah Story by Eric A. Kimmel, winner of an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award; and The Story of Hanukkah by David A. Adler, a New York Times holiday pick.