Maria Gill considers herself an adventurer having travelled Europe, India and China by herself before she was 23 years old. In her teens, she lived three years in a caravan with her family travelling around Australia. For the last twenty years, she has visited schools throughout New Zealand sharing her 60 books with children. This is her seventh book with Marco Ivancic. The first 'New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame' shortlisted for two national awards. The second 'Anzac Heroes' won the NZCYA Supreme Book of the Year prize, and subsequent books received Storylines Notable Book awards. In 2020, Storylines awarded Maria the Margaret Mahy Medal for services to children's literature. In the same year, she completed a Masters in Creative Writing (Honours). She also has a teaching degree and journalism diploma and uses those skills to write captivating nonfiction stories and teach writing workshops to children. Marco Ivancic is a freelance artist from Wellington, New Zealand with a Bachelor of Design and Illustration degree (Honours). For the past nine years, he has illustrated seven books dealing in New Zealand history with writer Maria Gill. This includes the award winning 'ANZAC Heroes', which won the 2016 Margaret Mahy Book of the Year prize at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children & Young Adults. He has also been nominated for and received awards for his illustration work. Marco has worked on book covers, album covers and video games. He experiences his adventures through designing marketing material for FarmIQ, his fulltime job for the last ten years.
