Mélina Mangal

Mélina Mangal writes picture books, biographies, and short stories that focus on connections with nature and culture. She is the author of The Vast Wonder of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just, winner of the Carter G. Woodson Award, Jayden’s Impossible Garden, named One of the Best Children's Books of the Year by Bank Street Center for Children’s Literature, and the sequel, Jayden’s Secret Ingredient.  Her latest YA short story appears in Boundless: Twenty Voices Celebrating Multicultural and Multiracial Identities.  Mélina also works as a school library media teacher in Minneapolis, spreading book love daily.