Jion Sheibani grew up in Brighton and read English at Oxford before moving to Paris, where she now lives with her husband and their two small children. When not writing and illustrating children's books, she runs an English language school in Paris. Jion won the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Best Up-and-Coming Portfolio Prize in 2012 and Comic Strip Prize 2014. Lily and the Polar Bears is her first picture book.