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Authors & Illustrators

The Bookshelf: Inside Author Yuyi Morales’s Treehouse Studio

Written by Erin Feher

Photography by Photographed by Gustavo Barrios

Welcome to our new column The Bookshelf, where we take you inside the creative studios of some of our favorite children’s book authors and illustrators. We’re kicking off the series with a tour of the magical Mexican art studio of author-illustrator Yuyi Morales (it’s basically perched on a volcano!). Yuyi has published 15 children’s books over the course of her career—including the beloved Niño Wrestles the World and Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book—and earned countless awards.

Her latest book is Dreamers,  a colorfully illustrated memoir in which she recounts her own immigration journey from Mexico to the San Francisco Bay Area 25 years ago.  Speaking almost no English and traveling with her infant son, Morales found respite and connection inside local public libraries, specifically among the colorful titles in the children’s book section. After more than two decades in the Bay Area, Yuyi has relocated back to her home town of Xalapa, Mexico, and works from a glass-walled studio carved into volcanic rock and surrounded by jungle canopy. She takes us inside to talk motherhood, immigration, and inspiration.

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