Ross MacDonald has created illustrations and humor pieces for periodicals like Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Newsweek, Time, Spy and Rolling Stone. He illustrated the recent children's books 7 ATE 9 (by Tara Lazar) and AMERICAN GOTHIC, THE LIFE OF GRANT WOOD by Susan Wood. He collaborated with author Sally Cook on the books HOW TO SPEAK SOCCER, HOW TO SPEAK FOOTBALL, and HOW TO SPEAK GOLF, and with Sally Cook and James Charlton on HOW TO SPEAK BASEBALL. He also wrote and illustrated 4 children’s books, as well as the adult humor books WHAT WOULD JESUS CRAFT? and IN AND OUT WITH DICK AND JANE, with co-author James Victore. Yet all the while he has led a secret double life designing and fabricating props for over 40 movies and television series. He has made everything from the book Bradley Cooper’s character throws out the window in Silver Linings Playbook, to the titular Book of Secrets for the second National Treasure movie, baby’s favorite book in Baby’s Day Out, Nucky Thompson’s checkbook and Arnold Rothstein’s calling card for Boardwalk Empire, the morgue toe-tags in The Knick, the Pawnee town charter for Parks and Recreation, the Red Apple Tobacco tin in Tarantino’s Hateful Eight, and thousands of other props.

Born and raised in the backwoods of Canada, he lived for many years in New York City before finally washing up on the bucolic shores of Connecticut.

Street magic performer. Hog-calling champion. Award-winning ice sculptor. These are all things Tara Lazar has never been. Instead, she writes quirky, humorous picture books where anything is possible!

Tara's book ABSURD WORDS won a 2023 SCBWI Golden Kite in Non-fiction for Older Readers. The Golden Kite is the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators' highest peer-selected honor.

7 ATE 9: THE UNTOLD STORY was honored with the 2018 SCBWI Crystal Kite and the Irma S. & James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children's Literature from Bank Street College of Education. Her other titles include THE MONSTORE, I THOUGHT THIS WAS A BEAR BOOK, LITTLE RED GLIDING HOOD, NORMAL NORMAN, WAY PAST BEDTIME, YOUR FIRST DAY OF CIRCUS SCHOOL, THREE WAYS TO TRAP A LEPRECHAUN, BLOOP, plus THE UPPER CASE and TIME FLIES, sequels to 7 ATE 9.

Tara's next picture book is FLAT CAT, illustrated by NY Times #1 Bestselling illustrator of THE BAD SEED series, Pete Oswald--available for pre-order now (the book, not Pete).

Tara's signature writing style is full of puns, wordplay, and goofy fun that makes both kids and adults giggle together non-stop.

Discover original stories, book reviews and giveaways at her popular blog "Writing for Kids (While Raising Them)": TaraLazar.com.

Tara was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2010. She speaks professionally about overcoming disability to achieve your goals and dreams. Tara teaches writing workshops for SCBWI, Highlights Foundation, and schools across America. She's a former Co-Chair of the prestigious Rutgers University Council on Children's Literature conference and a former picture book mentor for We Need Diverse Books (WNDB) and #PBChat. Tara visits dozens of schools annually to promote reading and writing to students.

Tara holds a BA in English/Writing from Rutgers College. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, two daughters, and a lucky black cat named Phoebe.