Idony, the Birthday Iguana is a celebratory book about an iguana that is having a birthday. She bypasses binaries, and makes informed choices on her birthday that are fun sage, inclusive, and fully embracing of community.
Sandra Gonsalves-Domond
Dr. S. Virginia Gonsalves-Domond is a Full Professor of Social/Personality Psychology who has been an academician for 44 years. She has taught at Bates College and Sarah Lawrence College. Having been a Mental Health Consultant for Head Start for over 25 years, she has provided direct interventions to special needs children and their families and has successfully authored Head Start grants. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and was selected by her peers for the prestigious Henry Bischoff Excellence in Teaching Award. Dr. Gonsalves-Domond is an accomplished and published author, Book Reviewer, Grants Writer, Head Start Trainer/Facilitator/Workshop Leader, and poetess. She enjoys reading, singing, museum-visiting, travelling, and the theater. Dr. Gonsalves-Domond published the following children’s books: Alliterative Animals: A to Z (Dorrance Publishing Company, 2021); Stella, the Stealthy, Stellar Squirrel in Spartanasha (Dorrance Publishing, 2023); and Laci, the Largemouth Bass (Archway Publishers, 2023). Books 4 and 5 are published by Innovative Ink in 2024 (a division of Kendall Hunt). The titles of these new publications are Ophelia, the Happy Elf Owl and Idony, the Birthday Iguana. Sydney, the Snake in a Bodega Town is Dr. Gonsalves-Domond sixth book and is also published by Innovative Ink.
Dr. Gonsalves-Domond was a Visiting Professor at John Cabot University in Rome, Italy in 2021. In summer 2022, she obtained a Nippon Foundation Fellowship at the Japanese Studies Institute at San Diego State University. Dr. Gonsalves-Domond loves writing children’s narratives.