Matt Tavares is the author-illustrator of the New York Times best-selling picture book Dasher and its sequel Dasher Can't Wait for Christmas, Red and Lulu, the graphic novel Hoops, and several sports biographies, including Becoming Babe Ruth and Growing Up Pedro. He is also the illustrator of Twenty-One Steps: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by Jeff Gottesfeld, The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstrup, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore, and Over the River and Through the Wood by L. Maria Child, among many other picture books. Matt Tavares lives in Ogunquit, Maine.