Manuela Bacelar was born in Coimbra in 1943. She completed her secondary studies in Porto at the School of Decorative Arts Soares dos Reis. She continued her artistic studies in Prague at the Higher School of Applied Arts, where she was a scholar from 1963 to 1970, completing the Illustration Course. In 1971, she settled in the city of Porto, where she has resided ever since. She is already known to the Portuguese public, especially children. As a renowned plastic artist and illustrator, she is the author and co-author of some of the most important works of children's literature: The Mysterious Eggs, Tobias, My Grandfather, The Dinosaur, Sebastião, Bernardino... There are already over a hundred titles, illustrated but also written. Some of them have won national and international awards. Several have been translated in France, Belgium, Denmark, Lebanon, Morocco, and Spain. She is the first major reference in children's illustration in Portugal in the post-25th of April 1974 period.