Phil Kettle is a prolific children's author who specialises in encouraging reluctant readers. He found phenomenal success with his first series TOOCOOL, which ran to 34 books. He followed up with BOYS RULE, GIRLZ ROCK and BILLY COOL, each series more successful than the last. The underlying themes of his writing are individuality, freedom of thought and positivity. Phil credits his upbringing on a farm outside Mildura and lots of sport as a youngster for his own positive outlook. Phil is currently writing a series called OUR AUSTRALIA for Australian Geographic. He passionately believes that Australian kids need to learn about their country and Australian themes. Phil lives in Melbourne and travels extensively doing literacy workshops for school children.

Tom Jellett is an Australian illustrator based in Sydney. Tom has been an editorial illustrator for News Limited, working on The Australian, The Weekend Australian and The Daily Telegraph. He has also illustrated a number of books for children, including Australia at The Beach by Max Fatchen, The Littlest Pirate series by Sherryl Clark for Penguin Books, The Gobbledygook is Eating A Book by Justine Clarke and Arthur Baysting, My Dad Thinks He’s Funny by Katrina Germein and the follow up My Dad Still Thinks He’s Funny for Walker Books. Tom has also been included in the Editorial and Book category for Illustrators 53, exhibited at the Society of Illustrators, New York in 2011 and 2013. He was also included in Communication Arts Illustration Annual 2012, 3×3 Children’s Show No. 9, and was also Highly Commended in the 2013 Illustrators Australia Awards.