Monica Brown has written more than a dozen children's picture books with text in both English and Spanish. Raised bilingually by a South American mother and North American father, she says her inspiration comes from her own upbringing.

"It wasn't until I had children ... that I decided to write for children —Brown tells NPR's Arun Rath—. I knew I wanted to write stories that reflected the multi-ethnic, bilingual nature of my own family." Read and listen to the complete story here.