Books By Tessa Strickland, Kate DePalma - Author

Tessa Strickland was brought up in rural north England, the second of five children, frequently exploring the local woods and fields on her pony. Tessa co-founded Barefoot Books with Nancy Traversy in the early 1990s, and has gone on to create many highly acclaimed children’s books, including the numerous books she has written as Stella Blackstone. She is also mother to three adult children, a yoga practitioner and a licensed psychotherapist. Tessa now lives and works in Somerset, southwest England, where she no longer has a pony but makes up for it by owning a handsome black-and-white rocking horse.

Kate DePalma was born and raised outside Nashville, TN, USA. As a child, she enjoyed wholesome activities like making up stories and catching crawdads almost as much as she enjoyed dressing up like Whitney Houston to go with her mom to the grocery store. As Senior Editor at Barefoot Books, she has helped develop dozens of picture books; Kate also writes picture books under her pseudonym, Sunny Scribens. She holds an M.A. in Classics from the University of Texas and is also a published poet and scholar. Kate lives with her husband and daughter, and is still a chatterbox with a wild imagination.