Colleen Paeff

Award-winning author Colleen Paeff received a bachelor’s degree in set design for theater from California State University, Fullerton, before becoming a bookseller, preschool teacher, and newspaper columnist. (She never did become a set designer!) Eventually, she figured out how to combine books, kids, and writing into one career—as a children’s book author. Her debut picture book, THE GREAT STINK: HOW JOSEPH BAZALGETTE SOLVED LONDON’S POOP POLLUTION PROBLEM (illustrated by Nancy Carpenter), was named a 2022 Robert F. Sibert Informational Fiction Honor Book and won the 2022 Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction Text for Young Readers. Look for Colleen’s second book, RAINBOW TRUCK (co-written with Hina Abidi and illustrated by Saffa Khan) from Chronicle Books in August of 2023. Colleen lives in Los Angeles, CA, and Brooklyn, NY. Learn more about her at www.colleenpaeff.com or on Instagram and Twitter @ColleenPaeff.