Andreas Steinhöfel was born in Battenberg in 1962. He is the author of numerous, multiple award-winning books for children and young people, such as "Die Mitte der Welt". He received the Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis  for "Rico, Oskar und die Tieferschatten". In 2009, Andreas Steinhöfel was awarded the Erich Kästner Prize. This was followed by the Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis for his complete works, the James Krüss Prize and nominations for the ALMA and the Hans Christian Andersen Prize. Andreas Steinhöfel is the first children's and young adult author to be a member of the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung. His series about Rico and Oskar was very successfully filmed for the cinema. In addition to his work as an author, he also works as a translator and reviewer and writes screenplays. Since 2015, he has been producing children's films in his film company sad ORIGAMI.