Sara Gillingham is an award-winning art director, designer and the author/illustrator of books such as: How to Grow a Friend, Snuggle the Baby, The Empowerment Series and the bestselling In My Series. 

Sara has almost two decades of experience in children's publishing, both in-house: as former Design Director for children's publishing at Chronicle Books, and as principal of her own studio. She has art directed/designed hundreds of children's books, and won numerous awards from organisations such as 3x3, Print Magazine, 50 Books/50 Covers and The Society of Illustrators. 

Sara has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia, and a Masters in Illustration/Design from the Glasgow School of Art and has taught children's book illustration at California College of the Arts and UC Berkeley Extension in San Francisco.