Sonja Danowski was born in Iserlohn, Germany. She studied design in Nuremberg and since then has been working in Berlin as an illustrator. Her work focuses especially on picture books, using images to preserve human memories. Her colorful illustrations have won her many international awards, including the Golden Island Award in the Nami Island International Picture Book Illustration Concours 2015. Her first book for NorthSouth Books, Grandma Lives in a Perfume Village, was a Batchelder Honor Book.