Daniel Martín Castellano

Daniel Martín Castellano studied Teaching at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and later Educational Psychology. He has worked as a teacher since 1995, developing a sustained involvement in school libraries, reading mediation and children's and young-adult literature. In 1999 he began performing as an oral storyteller in schools, libraries and cultural venues across the islands.

In 2003, while working as an adviser on school libraries and reading promotion at a teacher-training centre, he created Animalec to share reading resources and ideas. His training work includes workshops and courses for teachers.

His catalogue includes picture books such as El monstruo and La pirata más feroz del mundo, children's and young-adult titles such as La cazadora de silbos and El susurro de Tara, and fiction such as El callejón del Conde Albrit and Laozi y Tse. It also includes educational publications on reading and writing. At Bilenio Publicaciones he also works as an editor of children's literature.

Storytelling also runs through his audio projects. Cuentos para soñar brings together stories he wrote in an audio album, while Música para chinijos shares compositions used in schools and storytelling sessions. His resources include songs linked to La familia F en el Museo Elder and La pirata más feroz del mundo, with an arrangement for timple for the latter. His Animalec page also links to the podcast Suelta de cuentos.

In 2024, with Juan Carlos Saavedra Guadalupe, he published Diario de una camarera de piso de Mogán, issued by Mogán Town Council and illustrated by Aarón Morales. The book combines interviews with retired and working hotel housekeepers with a fictional diary to tell of their experiences in tourism. April 2025 saw the publication of El jardín, his first poetry collection for children, published by Bilenio and illustrated by Saru Hernández. Devoted to the earth and the inhabitants of a garden, it includes songs performed by Estefanía Rodríguez, accessible through a QR code.

He received the Biblioteca Insular's Special Prize for Canarian Authors in 2011. He co-authored Wi, winner of Cuentos Solidarios in 2016, and received recognition for his literary career from the Asociación Cultural Tasate in 2021.