Ángeles Ruiz was born in Barcelona, Spain, on a cold winter night. When she was a child, reading was her favorite subject at school. That was where her passion for creating magical stories and picture books started. Her mom was an artist who painted landscapes on canvas. She dearly remembers playing and painting in her mom’s studio surrounded by paintbrushes and paint tubes. Ángeles paints with both traditional and digital brushes using textures and colors in her work to evoke magical environments and emotions. She has illustrated several books for children, including The Lost Kitten by Leyla Torres and A Zombie Vacation by Lisa Rose. Valentina and Monster is the first children’s book she both wrote and illustrated. She lives with her husband, her little daughter, and a gray and white cat named Gus in a red brick house in front of the forest near the Mediterranean Sea. When not illustrating, she loves to explore nature, go to the library, and spend time with her family.