Suzanne Del Rizzo has always loved getting her hands messy. She traded her job in scientific research for a career in children's illustration with her first picture book, Skink on the Brink, which won the SCBWI Crystal Kite award and was a finalist for the Rainforest of Reading Award. My Beautiful Birds was also an SCBWI Crystal Kite winner, as well as a Malka Penn Award winner, a Marilyn Bailie Picture Book Award finalist, and a New York Times Notable Children's Book. Suzanne's dimensional illustrations use polymer clay, acrylic glaze, and other mixed media to bring rich texture and imagination to her books.