Lalena Fisher’s (www.lalenalab.com) picture book Friends Beyond Measure: A Story Told with Infographics is part of the Texas 2X2 Reading List, the Washington Children’s Picture Book Award list, and the California Department of Education’s Recommended Literature List for 2024-2025. Packed with color, humor, graphs, and social-emotional learning, the book was named a “Best Book of 2023” by Kirkus, the Chicago Public Library, The Horn Book, and NPR’s Science Friday.
Lalena draws and writes in her backyard studio in Austin, Texas. She earned a Bachelor of Journalism at UT-Austin and an MFA in painting at Pratt Institute in New York. She also spent a year studying Spanish in Monterrey, Mexico. Lalena has created designs for the kids’ animated TV shows Blue’s Clues and The Wonder Pets, as well as information graphics for The Houston Chronicle and The New York Times. These experiences come together in Friends Beyond Measure (HarperKIDS), which melds social-emotional learning with STEM. In the story, Ana draws colorful charts and maps to help work through her feelings. The book was declared “a double-whammy for classroom use” by the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books. Lalena loves to read and draw with kids and can present either partially or fully in Spanish. After hours, Lalena rocks out with her daughter as guitar-and-drums duo The Mothermold while her husband and the dog hold their ears.
Lalena Fisher
