Three Little Crawfish

Author, J. Steven "Steve" Spires, has been an elementary teacher in Slidell, Louisiana for the past 27 years. Spires earned a journalism degree from the University of Mississippi in Oxford, MS where his love for writing was practiced daily as he wrote for the local newspaper and the university radio and television stations. Spires earned a M.Ed. from the University of New Orleans and he put aside his writing aspirations while he taught third grade, married and had five of his favorite mischief makers - his children. In 2005, during the mandatory evacuation for Hurricane Katrina, Spires began writing the first of many children's stories. "It's hard to believe that it took a hurricane to launch my writing career. But since that first story, I have not stopped writing. Hurricane Katrina may have flooded New Orleans with water, but it flooded my mind with stories," he says. Spires is a member of the Society of Children's book Writers and Illustrators. Spires and his wife, Eve, reside in Slidell, LA with their two of their five children.

Deborah (Debbi) Halbeck Kern (1951-2020) grew up in the suburbs of Glen Ellyn, outside Chicago. She earned her BFA in 1973 from Bowling Green State University. Kern moved to the West Clermont community in Cincinnati as the new art teacher at Amelia Elementary where she would teach for thirty years, meeting her husband along the way. After retiring, Kern found great joy in continuing her art and community work, even doing freelance illustration work specializing in pen-and-ink art of pets and homes. She loved drawing animals and illustrated seven children's books, including Jack and Remy's Bayou Band and Three Little Crawfish. Her former students and her art stand as a testament to her beautiful spirit.