Rachel Rooney was born in London and is the fifth of six children. She trained as a special needs teacher and now works with children with autism, runs writing workshops and still finds time to create wonderful, and often playful, poems. A published poet, Rachel's collection THE LANGUAGE OF CAT (Francis Lincoln) has been nominated for the 2012 CILIP Carnegie Medal. Rachel lives in Brighton with her three sons and their dog. A PATCH OF BLACK is her first picture book. Deborah Allwright used an ironing board as a drawing table when she was a child, which meant she was limited to drawing snakes, giraffes and other long, thin animals. Now a fully grown, exceptionally talented and highly acclaimed illustrator, Deborah lives in North London and works in a big shared studio - which means she can draw whatever she wants, and not just long, thin animals. Deborah has previously illustrated two other books for Macmillan, DINOSAUR STARTS SCHOOL (978-1-4050-3511-8) and DINOSAUR SLEEPOVER (978-0-330-50955-8).