Margarita Engle is the Cuban-American author of many verse books, including the Newbery Honor Book The Surrender Tree, the Charlotte Zolotow Award winner Drum Dream Girl, and the Walter Dean Myers Honor Enchanted Air. Her books have also received multiple Pura Belpré and Americas Awards as well as a Jane Addams Award, an International Reading Association Award, and many others.
Mike Curato traveled to Havana to do visual research and bring this story to life. He is the author and illustrator of the Little Elliot series and has illustrated a number of other books for children, including Worm Loves Worm.