"Alina Chau ??? is an acclaimed author and illustrator. She worked in the animation and gaming industries for a decade, with credits including best-selling games, and most notably the Emmy Award-winning Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series.
Alina's unique cultural heritage strongly influences her artistic and storytelling voice. Having grown up in Hong Kong in an Indonesian-Chinese family during the British colonial era, her creative vision is a fusion of diverse cultures. She creates stories inspired by the natural world, which turn childhood daydreams into immersive environments full of distinctive flora and fauna.
Alina has achieved great success in the world of children's literature. Her debut graphic novel, Marshmallow and Jordan, won the Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Award and the Sakura Medal for Best Middle-Grade Graphic Novel in Japan for 2023. It has also been chosen for the Read Across America 2022 and the Texas Library Association's 2023 Maverick and Little Maverick Reading Lists. Along with this, Alina has also illustrated several highly acclaimed children's picture books, including The Rise (And Falls) of Jackie Chan, Lunar New Year, and The Nian Monster, which was awarded the 2018 APALA Picture Book Honor. She also developed In the Spirit Of a Dream, a collaborative project, which she illustrated."