Christine Davenier worked as a teacher for three years before illustrating her first book in France in 1988. Since 1999, Christine has also been illustrating books in the United States. Her energetic style and exuberant characters have helped her books garner Parents' Choice and Booksense Top Ten awards. In 2002, The First Thing My Mama Told Me (North-South) was chosen as a New York Times Best Illustrated Book. More recently, books in the Very Fairy Princess series (Little, Brown), written by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton, have spent several weeks on the New York Times and Publishers Weekly children's bestseller lists. Christine has also illustrated bestsellers by Judith Viorst, Jack Prelutsky, Kimberly Willis Holt, Madeline L'Engle, Peter Yarrow, and Amanda Peet, as well as the Iris and Walter series Miss Lina's Ballerinas series.