Author/Illustrator Info:

Jennifer Shields has been a zoo educator and animal trainer for over thirty years working at zoos in Ohio, Florida, Alabama, California, and now in Louisiana where she is the Curator of Education at the Baton Rouge Zoo. She is a certified Master Animal Trainer and has worked with a wide variety of animals from elephants, sea lions, and tigers to bats, pythons, and alligators. She shares her home with three dogs and two cats and shares her property, which is a certified Louisiana native plant and wildlife habitat, with native animals large and small. Louisiana has provided the chance to spend time with alligators in the wild and has deepened her understanding of and affection for these often-misunderstood creatures.