Brenna Burns Yu

Biography

Brenna is an author and illustrator who lives and works in New Haven, Connecticut. Her first book, Hazel and Twig: The Birthday Fortune, is about two tiny mouse sisters. Even though the characters are mice, she used pictures of her daughters as drawing models. She tried to make Hazel and Twig look exactly like them, only…mice. She has a lot of fun thinking about what Hazel and Twig might eat, and to help with this she keeps a field guide to wild edible plants in the studio. When she finds an edible plant outside that she can identify, she sometimes even takes a little nibble. Her favorite media are ink, watercolor, gouache, and pencil. She is currently working on a new book about Hazel and Twig, and writing new stories about different characters, including some snails, a ghost and an owl, and a kid who wants to swim all night.