Matt was born in Maine, USA. Jenny was born in Moscow, Russia.

His family moved to Alabama when he was in middle school and to Florida when he was in high school. Her family moved to California when she was in middle school and to Illinois when she was in high school.

When Matt was a kid, he wanted to be a car designer. When Jenny was a kid, she wanted to be an artist.

They both went to art school in Rhode Island. During freshman year, Matt helped Jenny wire a lamp for sculpture class. The lamp was made of lettuce and wilted in two days. “I’ve never made another lamp,” Jenny says.

Matt and Jenny moved to Chicago, Illinois, after college. Aside from making children’s books, they fixed up a 100-year-old house. After 19 years in the Midwest, they moved to southern Washington to live closer to mountains and evergreen forests. “I love watching the mist weave through the trees,” Matt says.

Matt and Jenny hope to one day visit every state in the United States. They have 12 more to go.