This author/illustrator was born to German immigrants in New York in 1929, but his family returned to Germany when he was a child. He felt life there was grey--the buildings, the teachers, even the weather, except for his art classes, where he learned to explore color. At age 22 he came back to the US and worked as a graphic designer for the New York Times. When a friend suggested he try illustrating children's books, he began by creating the art for others but eventually wrote his own books, beginning with 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo, in 1968. His most famous book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, was published in 1969 and is still loved by children today. This is Eric Carle, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 91.
