June Smalls is a children’s author of fiction and nonfiction, including Odd Animal ABC’s and She Leads: The Elephant Matriarch. She resides in Northern Virginia with her family and an ever-growing assortment of animals. Yukari Mishima was born and raised in Hiroshima, Japan. She has always loved to draw and paint pictures. She majored in foreign language courses at university and worked an office job for 10 years after graduation. At the age of 35, she quit the corporate world and decided to pursue her passion and become a freelance illustrator.