As a child, Bella Makatini (1980, Den Bosch, NL) liked to write. She asked notebooks for her birthday to fill them with her stories. She continued writing, also during her studies in communication sciences and sociology, and her job as a project manager in research. With The Big Five, Bella won the international children's story competition of Inclusive Works and Clavis Publisher in the toddlers category. The story is about a boy who, together with his grandfather, explores the elephant, the lion, the rhinoceros, the leopard and the buffalo.