Melissa Iwai is an award-winning author/illustrator of over thirty picture books, including Soup Day, Pizza Day, Dumplings for Lili, which was a 2022 SCBWI Crystal Kite Award winner. Her I Can Read Series, Gigi and Ojiji, was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection, and Gigi and Ojiji was a Theodor Geisel Honor recipient in 2023. When she is not creating, she can be found cooking and doing crossword puzzles with her husband, author Denis Markell, in Brooklyn.
