Lizards for Lunch: A Roadrunner's Tale
Conrad J. Storad grew up in Barberton, Ohio, amidst the belching smokestacks of tire factories, steel mills, and auto assembly plants. He didn't see his first javelina, saguaro cactus, scorpion or rattlesnake up close and personal until 1982, when he began graduate school at Arizona State University. Currently, Storad is the editor of the national award-winning ASU Research Magazine, and is the founding editor of Chain Reaction, a science magazine for young readers. He is also the author of many science and nature books for young adults, including the titles: Don't Ever Cross That Road!, Don't Call Me Pig!, Little Lords of the Desert, Tarantulas, Scorpions, Sonoran Desert A to Z, and Saguaro Cactus. Storad lives in Tempe, Arizona with his wife Laurie and their miniature double dapple dachshund, Sophie. They enjoy hiking and exploring the wilds of the Sonoran Desert. Beth Neely and Don Rantz met while studying Fine Art at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona . They soon discovered a mutual attraction to the outdoors, gardening, cooking, reading, and each other. They married in 1993 and began their artistic and lifelong collaboration. Presently, they reside in a small historic bungalow in Prescott, Arizona with their two cats, and a backyard menagerie of birds, lizards, raccoons, skunks, coyotes and even a small herd of javelinas. These surroundings provided them with the means from which to draw inspiration as the illustrators of the children's book Don't Call Me Pig! which preceded their work in Lizards for Lunch: A Roadrunner's Tale.