Susan K. Mitchell is an author with many hats in her collection: author, mom, wife, pre-school teacher and Spanish teacher. Susan loves creating a silly world of words for kids. Surrounded by kids all day, every day, Susan has no shortage of story ideas. While using the song, The Green Grass Grows All Around, in her preschool class, she saw the excitement her students had learning about life cycles in a fun medium. They grew gigglier and more out of breath as the song grew longer and longer, Susan said of her students. Since the rainforest is one of the most complex ecosystems on our planet, she knew she could make it fun to learn about too. The lives in the Amazon rainforest are so intertwined that the song made a perfect background to teach children about the fragile circle of life. So she created a story that grew higher and higher, building on each plant and animal that resides in the endangered rainforest until the end becomes the beginning again!

Award-winning illustrator Connie McLennan has been a freelance artist for over 25 years, since attending Academy of Art College in San Francisco. In addition to illustrating Ready, Set, Wait! (Fall 2010), she has also illustrated Mother Osprey: Nursery Rhymes for Buoys & Gulls, The Rainforest Grew All Around, River Beds: Sleeping in the World's Rivers, Water Beds: Sleeping in the Ocean, and Octavia and her Purple Ink Cloud for Sylvan Dell Publishing. Her studio is at her home in California, where she lives with her husband, teenage son, and one big, black cat.