Andy Jones is a performer, writer, and former member of the CODCO comedy troupe. He was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, where he co-founded the Resource Centre for the Arts at the L.S.P.U. Hall, co-writing, acting in, and directing many original productions.Among his numerous stage and film credits, Jones starred in, co-wrote, and co-directed the 1986 feature film, The Adventures of Faustus Bidgood. He has written five critically acclaimed one-man comedy shows, as well as Albert, a one-act play for one man and a budgie bird; The Lady with the Lapdog(a radical theatrical adaptation of Anton Chekhov's short story); and the children's plays The Queen of Paradise's Garden, Jack Meets the Cat (co-written with the Sheila's Brush collective) and Jack-Five-Oh (co-written with Philip Dinn). Jones also writes children's books based on Newfoundland Folktales; Jack and Mary in the Land of Thieves, won the Winterset award in 2013.

A native of Slovenia, Darka Erdelji received a Masters of Arts in Puppet Scenography from Prague’s Akadmie Muzickych Umeni. She lived in St. John’s with her Newfoundland-born partner and their children for several years. Darka currently designs puppets for Lutkovno Gledališče Maribor, a state-of-the-art Slovenian puppet theatre housed in a renovated medieval monastery. In the summer of 2015, Darka's artwork for two of the Jack books was featured at “Image. Word. Design: Exploring Picture Book Illustration in Atlantic Canada,” an exhibition at the Acadia University Art Gallery in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Since returning to Slovenia, she has illustrated two highly praised books by acclaimed Slovenian children's writer Bina Stampe Zmavc.

Winner of the 2012 BMO Winterset Award. Winner of the 2014 Bruneau Family Award for Children's and Young Adult Writing

"The bardic, original voice of Andy Jones in another of his word perfect Jack tales gives us a world away from now, a world that celebrates Newfoundland’s sailing history, song, and the art of storytelling itself. Mary is a strong, resilient, unforgettable character and through her cunning, teaches Jack a lesson. Jones never once allows his tale to fall into any kind of didacticism. Instead, his use of humour, sensory detail, language, and adept narrative twists in the structure of his tale makes Jack & Mary In the Land of Thieves a book that does what classics do – appeals to an audience of young and old alike. With this book, Jones defines the kind of excellence C.S.Lewis believed in when he wrote: I am almost inclined to set it up as a canon that a children’s story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children’s story. The good ones last." – Jury’s statement for 2014 Bruneau Family Award (one of the Newfoundland and Labrador Book Awards)

"It is a great pleasure to listen to Andy Jones tell a story, and, happily, his printed stories fill you with the same hushed anticipation from the first sentence. To read this book aloud is to become a storyteller. … A worthy follow-up to the acclaimed Jack and the Manger, which won the NL children’s literature award, and The Queen of Paradise’s Garden…" – Alison Mews, in Canadian Review of Materials

"Darka Erdelji’s whimsical illustrations perfectly reflect the imaginative energy of the story, adding movement and clues about the characters on almost every page, with both small sketches and full-page spreads." – Joanne Findon, in Quill & Quire