Eric Carle (1929–2021) was acclaimed and beloved as the creator of brilliantly illustrated and innovatively designed picture books for very young children, including Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me; Have You Seen My Cat?; and The Tiny Seed. His best-known work, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, has been translated into seventy languages and sold over fifty-five million copies. Carle illustrated more than seventy books, many bestsellers, most of which he also wrote, and more than 170 million copies of his books have sold around the world. In 2003, Carle received the Children’s Literature Legacy Award for lifetime achievement in children’s literature. In 2002, Eric and his wife, Barbara, cofounded The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art (CarleMuseum.org) in Amherst, Massachusetts, a 40,000-square-foot space dedicated to the celebration of picture books and picture book illustrations from around the world, underscoring the cultural, historical, and artistic significance of picture books and their art form. Eric Carle passed away in May 2021 at the age of ninety-one. His work remains an important influence on artists and illustrators at work today. Find out more at Eric-Carle.com.

Stanley Tucci is an actor, writer, director, and producer. He has directed five films and appeared in over seventy films, countless television shows, and a dozen plays on and off Broadway. He has been nominated for an Academy Award, a Tony, and a spoken word Grammy; is a winner of two Golden Globes and six Emmys; and has received numerous other critical and professional awards and accolades. A lover of all things culinary, Stanley wrote and directed Big Night, the critically acclaimed movie about two brothers running a failing restaurant, starred in Julie & Julia, and is the host of three-time Emmy winning Searching for Italy. He is the author of Taste: My Life Through Food and two cookbooks, The Tucci Table and The Tucci Cookbook.