Three-Minute Interview with the Author and Illustrator of Alma and How She Got Her Name
by Traci Swain
![]() |
Did you know that Alma and How She Got Her Name started as the true story behind author-illustrator Juana Martinez-Neal’s name?
In this Scholastic Book Clubs–exclusive interview, Juana shares a behind-the-scenes look at what went into the Caldecott Honor–winning Alma and How She Got Her Name, including:
• Juana’s personal journey to becoming the Caldecott Honor–winning picture book creator we know today
• What Juana’s bookmaking process is like
• How Alma’s experience is similar to Juana’s
Your students can explore how their own backgrounds reflect the stories of who they want to become in this week’s Cooked Up from a Book free downloadable activity!
![]() |
Juana Martinez-Neal is the recipient of the 2019 Caldecott Honor for Alma and How She Got Her Name, her debut picture book as an author-illustrator. She is also the recipient of the 2020 Robert F. Sibert Medal for Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story and the 2018 Pura Belpré Illustrator Award for La Princesa and the Pea. She is the illustrator of La Madre Goose by Susan Middleton Elya, Babymoon by Hayley Barrett, and Swashby and the Sea by Beth Ferry. Juana’s work received an International Board on Books for Young People Honor in 2014, and she was awarded the SCBWI Portfolio Showcase Grand Prize in 2012. She was born in Lima, Peru, and now lives in Arizona with her husband and three children.
![]() |
![]() |
Alma and How She Got Her Name: Copyright © 2018 by Juana Martinez-Neal. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.
![]() |
This Book Is Available from Scholastic Book Clubs
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |