Donna Barba Higuera

Donna Barba Higuera grew up in a tiny desert town in Central California surrounded by agricultural and oil fields. Rather than wrangling dust devils, she’d spend recess squirreled away in the janitor’s closet with a good book. Her favorite hobbies were calling the library’s dial-a-story over and over again and sneaking into a restricted pioneers’ cemetery to weave her own spooky tales using the crumbling headstone for inspiration. 

​Donna’s Middle Grade and Picture books reinvent history, folklore, and or her own life experience into compelling storylines. She still dreams in Spanglish.

​​Donna lives in Washington State with her husband, four kids, three dogs and a frog.

​Her books include Lupe Wong Won’t Dance, El Cucuy Is Scared, Too!, and The Last Cuentista, and have won awards including: the Newbery medal, both Pura Belpré medal and honor, PNBA best book of the year award,  and the Sid Fleischman award for best children’s humor book of the year.