I’m the author of six picture books: OTTO’S RAINY DAY (Charlebridge Publishing 2000); CIXI, THE DRAGON EMPRESS (Goosebottom Books, 2011); SACAJAWEA OF THE SHOSHONE (Goosebottom Books, 2012), GOLDY LUCK AND THE THREE PANDAS (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2014); THE ROCK MAIDEN (Wisdom Tales Press, 2017.); and MULAN’S LUNAR NEW YEAR (Disney Worldwide Publishing, 2018). GOLDY LUCK AND THE THREE PANDAS was a Junior Library Guild and a Scholastic Book Club selection, and was nominated for the 2017 Illinois Monarch Reader’s Choice Award. My nonfiction articles have been published in the children’s magazines “Highlights for Children”, “Faces”, “Appleseeds”, and “Muse”. “The Elephant Queen” which appeared in the February issue of Faces, received a Letter of Merit in the 2013 SCBWI Magazine Merit Awards. My math concept picture book, YUM YUM, DIM SUM! has just been acquired by Charlesbridge Publishing, and I’m currently working on my first middle grade novel. When I’m not writing, I love to travel, hang out with my family, binge on Netflix shows, and play with my dog, Juneau.
Illustrator Sophie Li is a Chinese visual development artist working in animation and film both in Los Angles and Beijing, China. She relocated to the United States when she was 16, and has a BFA in Film and Television from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She worked on concept designs for films, commercials, exhibition art and character model designs for animated TV series such as Marvel’s Spiderman, Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers. She currently is co-running an animation studio, Zeet Animation, in Beijing, China.