Ioanna Nelson is an eight-year-old girl from Tbilisi, Georgia. She has an older sister named Alexandra and a younger brother named Daniel. Ioanna is in fourth grade at the British International School of Tbilisi and speaks English, Georgian, Spanish, and Russian. Her paternal grandmother (Abuela) is from Cuba and lives in Miami, and she, together with her sister, spends most summers with their Abuela in Miami, which is where most of this story takes place. Ioanna loves animals and nature, and the color purple. She wants to study veterinary medicine and be a writer when she grows up.