Juana Martinez-Neal is the Peruvian-born daughter and granddaughter of painters. Her debut as an author-illustrator, the Caldecott Honor Book Alma and How She Got Her Name , inspired the first four books in Alma's Words/Las palabras de Alma, a bilingual board book series. She is the creator of the acclaimed Zonia's Rain Forest and the illustrator of La Princesa and the Pea by Susan Middleton Elya, for which she won a Pura Belpré Illustrator Award; Babymoon by Hayley Barrett; the New York Times best-selling Tomatoes for Neela by Padma Lakshmi; Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka con la Papa by Sara Andrea Fajardo; and Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard, which won a Robert F. Sibert Medal. She also co-illustrated, with Molly Idle, I Don't Care by Julie Fogliano. Juana Martinez-Neal lives in Connecticut with her family. Visit her online at www.juanamartinezneal.

com.