The Little Engine That Could Saves Christmas

Meredith Rusu is a children's book author and editor who specializes in titles based on television and movies. She has written more than 100 books for kids from preschool to young adult. In addition, under the pen name Ada Hopper, she is the author of The DATA Set chapter book series.

Meredith lives in New Jersey with her husband and two young sons. Born in a sleepy little town in the hills of Pennsylvania, Jill Howarth always knew she wanted to be an artist. Upon graduating from Penn State University with a degree in graphic design, she entered the corporate design world.

As a senior designer and then art director at Hasbro Toys, she occasionally embellished collateral and product packaging with fun little drawings. More requests for these illustrations came her way and before she knew it, she was doing more drawing and less layout design. After leaving corporate life to start a family, she began freelancing.

She lives just west of Boston, with her husband, three teenagers and a crazy, lazy dog.