This photograph of Sing Down the Rain illustrator Mike Chiago
and author Judi Moreillon was taken at the Indian Market in Santa Fe, August 2012.

• I was born in St. Louis, Missouri on September 5, 1950.
  
• After living in Denton, Texas, for seven years where I taught at Texas Woman's University, I have returned to our family home in Tucson, Arizona. It's wonderful to be home in the desert again with my husband Nick, our dog-girl Pearl, and our two Sonoran Desert tortoises.
  
• My daughter Siri is thirty-five and my step-son Justin is thirty-three. Siri is a world traveler. She and her husband Tal live and work in Palo Alto, California. Justin lives and works in Washington, D.C.
  
• Until his death in the summer of 1998 at the age of fourteen, we had a sweet dog named Sierra. In his old age, he became afraid of thunder and woke up from his deep naps during rainstorms. Our current dog is a standard poodle puppy named Pearl. She is a rather rough and tumble member of her breed. We often say: "There's nothing French about our poodle!"
  
• We also care for two adult desert tortoises, Tortellini and Lucy. Tortellini was given to us by someone who had raised him as a pet. Lucy hatched at our home on September 10th, 2011. Her mother Boris-Doris died in 2009. Sonoran Desert tortoises hibernate from November through March or April. We feed our tortoises food from the desert as well as alfalfa, dark leafy greens, and fruits. Saguaro fruits are Lucy's favorite treat.
  
• Thanks to a great teacher, Miss Schwab, I've loved writing since third grade.
  
• Besides writing and walking, I love telling stories, reading, taking photographs, swimming, and visiting new places.
  
• Sing Down the Rain was my first published book. Read to Me/Vamos a leer, my second book, was published in January 2004. My third children's book Ready and Waiting for You was published in 2013. I also have three published professional books for classroom teachers and school librarians: Collaborative Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension: Maximizing Your Impact (ALA Editions, 2007) and Coteaching Reading Comprehension Strategies in Secondary School Libraries: Maximizing Your Impact (ALA Editions, 2012), and Coteaching Reading Comprehension Strategies in Elementary School Libraries: Maximizing Your Impact (ALA Editions, 2013). I am in the process of writing a fourth professional book.
  
• Click here to see a photograph of our first rescued standard poodle Tessa and me.