Ella Wilhelmina and the Big Conundrum

Heidi Livingston is a writer and educator with a master’s degree in English literature and has spent years working in film and theatre, cultivating a deep love of storytelling that now shapes her writing for young readers. Inspired by the boundless imagination and curiosity of children, Heidi draws on both her own childhood and her children’s lives to bring warmth and emotional realism to her stories. She lives in Chesapeake, Virginia with her husband and their five children.

Mercy Dominique is a self-taught illustrator who has loved drawing people since she was a child. After learning to draw faces from her older sister, she spent years filling notebooks with sketches and stories, often drawing simply to see what would happen on the page. She enjoys creating expressive characters and illustrations that capture warmth, imagination, and emotion. For this book, Mercy drew inspiration from the author’s family and the personalities of the characters themselves. Mercy grew up in Wisconsin and enjoys writing stories, learning Italian, playing guitar, and songwriting in her free time. This is Mercy’s first children’s book.