Vanessa Roeder is an award-winning author—illustrator of Lucy and the String, The Box Turtle, and the forthcoming The Stack (Dial Books for Young Readers). A former muralist, she now spends her time making books for children. Her work is created with layers of paper, acrylic paint, colored pencils, and a little bit of digital magic. In addition to making art, she loves teaching art, acting in plays, and speaking at schools, conferences, libraries, and bookstores any opportunity she gets. She lives in Austin, TX with her husband, three kids, and two hairy dogs who continually feed her ideas for the next story.