Tom Parisi is a longtime Fox Valley journalist. He worked previously as managing editor of the St. Charles Republican, senior reporter for the Beacon News and columnist for the Batavia Sun. He currently works in media relations for Northern Illinois University, where his duties include working with science reporters nationwide.

In A Short History of Nearly Everything, best-selling author Bill Bryson, known for his humorous books on travel, tries his hand at writing about the history of science. The result is a fascinating, funny, accessible and hugely successful book that ought to be used as a primer for high school science. In the author's words, the book describes "how we went from there being nothing at all to there being something, and then how a little of that something turned into us, and also what happened in between and since."    

Laura Crawford is a reading specialist at Sleepy Hollow Elementary School. She has enjoyed exploring science and social studies along with her students, and has written six picture books, including The Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving from A to Z, The American Revolution from A to Z, and In Arctic Waters. Her series, Postcards from Washington, Postcards from Chicago, and Postcards from New York City introduces elementary students to the historic and entertaining aspects of these important cities.