Karen Lee has turned from illustrator to author/illustrator with ABC Safari. A visit to the Mote Marine Aquarium with her family inspired a series of drawings and poems beginning with the manatees she discovered there. She comments "They are surprisingly beautiful, comical, and graceful." Her sketchbook soon represented animals from all over the world. Karen has spent over three years on this project which was the runner up for the 2005 SCBWI Don Freeman Grant. She is also the recipient of the 2004 SCBWI Magazine Merit Award for Illustration for her wok in Highlights For Children. Karen has illustrated two other books for Sylvan Dell, One Odd Day and My Even Day. She and her husband, also an illustrator, are raising their family outside of Raleigh, NC. Karen's children join her on many research trips to museums, zoos and aquariums - tough job, but someone has to do it!