Joni Akins

Joni has been illustrating since grade school, providing artwork for plays and year books during school, to play bills and make up designs for Portland Parks and Recreation in Portland Oregon, for her beloved Overlook Acting Company (Now Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center in north Portland.) She began writing childrens books in the mid 1990's while home schooling her step daughter Crystal. Fun fact, Dean The Bean was written and illustrated originally in crayon. It sat for almost ten years bouncing …