Gary and Justin VanRiper are a father-son writing team residing with their families in Camden, New York. They spend summer and autumn days at camp on Fourth Lake along the Fulton Chain of lakes in the west-central Adirondacks. The Adirondack Kids® began as a writing exercise for fun at home when Justin was in the third grade. Encouraged after a public reading from their manuscript at an event at school, the project grew into a chapter book. When 2000 print copies of their self-published print book sold out in three months, they began a second story and for twenty years released one new Adirondack Kids book per year.

Carol VanRiper, Gary’s wife and Justin’s mom, has been interior illustrator for the series since the fourth book, making The Adirondack Kids® even more of a family affair.