Leo Yerxa was born of Ojibwa parents in 1947 on the Little Eagle Reserve in northwestern Ontario. He is an award-winning writer, illustrator and artist who studied graphic arts at Algonquin College in Ottawa and fine arts at the University of Waterloo. He has written Last Leaf, First Snowflake to Fall, which won the 1994 Mr. Christie's Book Award. He received the Governor General's award for illustration in 1996 for his exceptional book Ancient Thunder. He died on September 1, 2017