Peggy Collins Illustrator & Author

Bahram Rahman was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and grew up during the civil war and the Taliban regime. He earned a medical degree at Kabul Medical University and a master’s degree in public policy at the University of Erfurt, Germany, while also working as an activist in Afghanistan in the areas of gender equality and youth political participation. Bahram came to Canada as a refugee in 2012, and today he is a senior policy advisor at the Ministry of Health in Ontario. His first picture book, Governor General’s Literary Award finalist The Library Bus, was praised by the New York Times for documenting the barriers to education experienced by girls in war-torn countries and their resilience and ingenuity in overcoming them. His Fall 2021 picture book A Sky-Blue Bench has received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews, which calls it “a timely, eye-opening portrait of resilience, community, and hope.” Peggy Collins is an award-winning children’s book author-illustrator with more than 35 titles to her name, including Hungry for Math: Poems to Munch On, In the Snow, and In the Garden. She has also written and illustrated for animated apps teaching math, indigenous history, and education. Peggy lives in Newburgh, Ontario with her two children.