<div><p><I>The Jacket</I> is a book that needs to be a book. It's a book that pays tribute, in word and form, to all that a book is and can be. Once upon a time there was a girl who had a dog named Egg Cream. This girl loved her dog, but she also loved her special book. And Book loved her. But how about Book and Egg Cream? Could they coexist as the girl's two favorite things in the whole wide world?</p><p>After getting an MA in early childhood education from NYU, <B>Kirstin Hall</B> taught both preschool and elementary school for several years while writing learn-to-read books for Scholastic and engaging in the book world in many other ways. Today, Kirsten is the US managing agent at The Bright Agency, a London-based children's illustration agency, as well as a book packager. <I>The Jacket</I> is her debut picture book.</p><p>Before <B>Dasha Tolstikova</B> became an illustrator, she was a photographer, a reporter, a newswire translator, a sales clerk, a cargo van driver, a film producer, and a decorative painter?not necessarily in that order. She is a graduate of the SVA MFA illustration program. In addition to <I>The Jacket</I>, she is currently working on her autobiographical graphic novel with Groundwood Books. <I>The Jacket</I> is her debut into the world of picture books.</p><BR></div>