About the Author

Rekha S. Rajan, EdD. has been an educator for more than 20 years. She holds a doctorate and master's in education from Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City and a master's in early childhood education from Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois. Rajan is the author of six books for teachers. Her book Integrating the Performing Arts in Grades K-5 (SAGE, 2012) includes over 60 lesson plans on how to connect the arts with STEM subjects. Her work has been featured on NPR, the National Head Start Association, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the California Alliance for Arts Education, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She lives in Chicago, Illinois, with her family.

Courtney Lovett received her BFA in Visual Arts and Animation from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She works in different mediums and artistic disciplines, including illustration, character design, and animation. As a Black American and a native of the DC, Maryland, Virginia area, her work reflects her heritage and upbringing, which adds to today's cultural shift of creating diverse and relatable stories from perspectives that are often underrepresented or misrepresented in art and media.