Madonna was born in Bay City, Michigan. She has recorded 16 albums, and appeared in 18 movies.
Loren Long received a BA in graphic design/art studio from the University of Kentucky and did graduate-level studies at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. He worked as an illustrator for a greeting card company in Cincinnati before beginning his career as a freelance illustrator. His first picture book, Angela Johnson's I Dream of Trains, won the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Golden Kite Award for picture book illustration. He has illustrated numerous other works including The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper, Mr. Peabody's Apples by Madonna, Toy Boat by Randall DeSeve which won the 2008 Great Lakes Book Award for Children's Picture Book, Angela and the Baby Jesus by Frank McCourt, and the chapter book series Sluggers that he created with Phil Bildner. His version of Walt Whitman's When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer was a Golden Kite Honor Book. He has written and illustrated several books including Drummer Boy and the Otis series.
