Eric Velasquez is an award-winning illustrator whose honors include the Pura Belpré Award, the Carter G. Woodson Book Award, the Coretta Scott King–John Steptoe Award for New Talent, and the NAACP Image Award. His most recent picture book is The Polar Bear and the Ballerina (also available as El oso polar y la bailarina). The son of Afro-Puerto Rican parents who encouraged music and storytelling, Eric grew up in Harlem, New York. Eric teaches illustration at the Fashion Institute of Technology and lives in New York.