Kate McCullough is a 12 year-old girl who was raised on a cattle station in North Queensland, with her sister, parents and grandparents. With the help of her family members, Kate has rescued motherless calves (poddies) just like Polly, who have grown up and had calves of their own. Kate has always liked animals and enjoys spending her free time with Polly, Molly, Wally, Dolly and little Holly, the family’s “pets”. Polly and Molly were two of the quietest poddies that they have ever had. Polly now has two calves of her own (Holly and Dolly) and Molly has one bull-calf called Wally.

Every now and then Kate climbs over the fence to give them all a pat. Kate’s publishing of The Lost Calf has been a dream come true for her, (she has always loved writing) and she is very excited about it. Kate loves living on a cattle station and considers herself one of the luckiest kids in the world.

Charlotte De Laine is 12 years old and has grown up in Balgowlah Heights, on the coastal beaches of Northern Sydney. This was her most challenging project so far, as she has never been to a working farm, let alone seen a poddy calf! However, she too has a love of animals, especially her two guinea pigs - Mocha and Latte, and it is this connection with nature that inspired the emotion in her illustrations for this book. She is happiest when enjoying life with her brother Will, mum and dad. She has had many travel adventures which centre around snow skiing – the family passion. She has been drawing since she was young enough to pick up a crayon and winning this competition was the realisation of a life dream. She hopes this is a springboard to a future life of creativity.