Felicita Sala author page

Felicita Sala biography

Felicita Sala is an author and illustrator of children’s picture books. She is a self-taught artist and graduated in philosophy from the University of Western Australia. Her illustration work has appeared in books, magazines and newspapers, and she has also worked on papercut stop-motion animation.

Sala has illustrated more than 20 picture books. Her credits include She Made a Monster: How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein by Lynn Fulton, Joan Procter, Dragon Doctor by Patricia Valdez, Green on Green by Dianne White, Be a Tree! by Maria Gianferrari, All from a Walnut by Ammi-Joan Paquette and As Night Falls by Donna Jo Napoli. She Made a Monster was selected as one of the New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2018, while As Night Falls received the same distinction in 2023.

She writes and illustrates her own books as well. Lunch at 10 Pomegranate Street, published in the UK by Scribe in 2019, combines a story about neighbours preparing food with recipes from around the world. It was followed by A Year in Fleurville, which brings together gardening, seasonal produce and recipes. Her 2024 picture book If You Run Out of Words, published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, follows a child asking her father increasingly imaginative questions about what would happen if he ran out of words.

Sala received Italy’s Premio Andersen for best illustrator in 2020 and the Gold Medal at the Society of Illustrators’ Original Art exhibition in 2023. Her picture book Bored, written and illustrated by Sala, was published by Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing in 2025 and was named a 2026 Children’s Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year Notable Book.