Marta Bartolj is an award-winning artist and illustrator. She has loved birds since she was little, seeing them as symbols of freedom and playfulness. When she watches them take flight, she sometimes imagines joining them. Her debut book, Every Little Kindness, received an Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Honor and a Kristina Brenkova Special Prize for outstanding wordless picture book. She holds a master’s degree from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Ljubljana, Slovenia, where she immersed herself in the study of illustration. She lives in Trebnje, Slovenia.