Stephen Briseño is a Mexican American picture book author, educator, and teacher developer. His debut picture book, The Notebook Keeper: A Story of Kindness from the Border, received a Pura Belpré Honor. A middle school English teacher, Stephen enjoys life, writes, reads, and drinks a ton of coffee with his wife and daughter in San Antonio. His most recent picture book is Queen of Leaves: The Story of Botanist Ynes Mexias.
The wax palm knows what it's like to defy the odds. Ynes Mexia knew it too. "Queen of Leaves" tells the true story of Ynes Mexia, the inspiring and fearless Mexican-American adventurer-botanist, and her quest to find the mysterious wax palm tree. Ynes enrolled in university in her 50s, at an age when women were not expected to be students. There she discovered botany -- a passion that would lead her all over the world on many adventures and change the study of botany forever. She went on to lead expeditions gathering plant and flower samples for universities and museums around the globe, introduce the botany world to the elusive wax palm tree, and forever cement herself as the Queen of Leaves.
