Pat Skene has eleven rocking chairs, including the one that her father gave her when she was two years old. She says that she does her best thinking when she is rocking back and forth. In fact, she wrote the first draft of What a Hippopota-Mess! during twenty minutes of rocking one night before dinner. Pat was a banker for many years. She loves her new life as a writer of rhymes. Pat lives in Cobourg, Ontario, with her husband.
Pat Lamondin Skene retired from the world of banking to find her voice. She is an Indigenous author of seven books for children, including What a Hippopota-Mess!, Rhyme Stones and Monster Lunch in the Orca Echo line. Pat is a regular contributor to the Oakville News and is currently working on her memoir. She lives in Oakville, Ontario.
A graduate of the illustration program at Sheridan College in Ontario, Graham Ross began his freelance illustration and graphic design career in Ottawa. A career that has spawned illustrations for such publishers as Orca Book Publishers, Scholastic Canada, and Meadowside Books of the United Kingdom, as well as numerous Canadian government agencies and private design firms. He lives in Merrickville, Ontario with a circus star family: his juggling wife, a helldriver daughter, a canine cannonball, and a fire breathing cat.
