The Cunning Plan: Book 1

Author-illustrator Alex T. Smith is the award-winning creator of the bestselling Claude series, which is published in 20 languages worldwide, and is now on TV. Alex's newest series is the critically acclaimed and well-loved Mr Penguin. Alex has won the UKLA Picture Book Award, the Children's Book of the World Illustration Award and the Sainsbury's Children's Book Award, and been shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Award. He has also been the official World Book Day illustrator.

Caryl Hart is an award-winning children's author who writes picture books and young fiction. She runs creative literacy workshops for schools, libraries, communities and festivals. The Girl who Planted Trees won Teach Early Years' Best Picture Book Award, 2022 and was chosen as one of the best books of 2022 by the U.K Children's Laureate, Joseph Coelho. Meet the Oceans was one of Waterstones' Best Books for Babies and Toddlers and Books for Topics' Best EYFS Curriculum Support in 2021, and Girls Can Do Anything was shortlisted for the Independent Bookshop Week Book Award in 2019. Her best-selling Princess series has sold over a quarter of a million copies, and her books are published in numerous languages all over the world. Caryl lives in Sheffield with her family and loves walking in the hills, cycling and wild swimming.