Emi Zako

Emi Zako was born in 1965 and raised in Japan. She grew up without her biological father due to a fatal car accident when she was only 18 months old. She graduated Oki Gakuen High School in Fukuoka, Japan and became a computer programmer in 1983. Going to college was one of her dreams but because it was financially very difficult for her to do at the time, she wasn't able to.

She visited America on a vacation and met her husband in 1997; they married in 1998. The couple have two daughters. She pursued one of her dreams, going to college, in 2010. She took two classes at a time for the first couple of years because taking care of their daughters was the first priority at the time and she needed to focus on learning English since it is her second language.

She graduated with Honors in Psychology and Social Behavior Science Associate Degrees from a community college in 2015 and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Early Childhood Development with Summa Cum Laude in 2017. Studying Children's Literature was her favorite college course because it taught her the important elements of children's books.

Publishing children's books was one of Emi's dreams! Emi had illustrated Shuta series which was inspired by her dog since 1998 (it is Japanese name so "Shuta" pronounces Shoo-ta).

The Shuta and Me book series is designed to promote an understanding of emotions, the development of empathy, and the acceptance of others for young children. Emi developed this idea while she was studying Children's Literature. She thought, "If I were to publish a book, it must let the child feel loved and cared for and it must help a child understand emotions, empathy, and individual differences. I want to create a book that a child will take everywhere and even sleep with it because she/he loves the book so much".