Phoebe, the daughter of a white French-Canadian mother and a Jamaican English-speaking father, dislikes her school nickname of "French Toast." Gently prompted by her blind grandmother, she uses descriptions of familiar foods from both cultures to explain the family's varied skin colors¿and realizes she can take ownership of the nickname proudly.

Kari-Lynn Winters is an author, poet, and performer. With over sixteen picture and poetry books published, she has won the British Columbia Book Prize silver medal twice, and been nominated numerous times for the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize and the Chocolate Lily Awards. Bad Pirate won the Rainforest of Reading Award. Kari-Lynn loves being in the classroom and now teaches drama in education at Brock University. She lives in St. Catharines, Ontario.