DASHA TOLSTIKOVA is the author and illustrator of The Bad Chair and A Year Without Mom, which received four starred reviews and was selected as an USBBY Outstanding International Book. Dasha has illustrated several picture books, including Violet and the Woof by Rebecca Grabill, Friend or Foe? by John Sobol and The Jacket by Kirsten Hall. Her illustrations have also appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the New Yorker. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.