Steliyana Doneva’s love of paint­ing and draw­ing start­ed in ear­ly child­hood. She stud­ied applied arts in Sofia, Bul­gar­ia, spe­cial­iz­ing in children’s toys. Then she grad­u­at­ed with a degree in graph­ic arts, where she found her love for children’s book illus­tra­tion. She has also illus­trat­ed Adam’s Ani­mals and The Per­sian Princess, also from Apples & Hon­ey Press. Stela lives with her hus­band and three chil­dren in Sofia, Bulgaria.