Sonia Sander started out as an elementary school teacher before turning her love of children’s books into a career-changing move. After relocating to New York City, she edited licensed books of varying formats for children at HarperCollins and Scholastic. Seven years later, she had a realization: If all the various writers she hired could write books from anywhere in the world, why couldn’t she do the same? So, she packed up her laptop and moved to Australia, where she started a family and wrote licensed children’s books overlooking the white sandy beaches of the Indian Ocean.

Over the years, Sonia has been a writer and editor for Pokémon, and a mom to two Pokémon fans—who think those first credentials are pretty impressive. These days, Sonia calls the Pacific Northwest her home and writes from her desk with a view of the peonies and dahlias in her garden, and a bit farther down the hill, the sailboats racing in the bay.