David Ezra Stein (www.davidezra.com) received a Caldecott Honor for Interrupting Chicken and the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award for Leaves, which was also a Publishers Weekly Best Book, a Kirkus Reviews Editor's Choice and a School Library Journal Best Book. He also wrote and illustrated Ol' Mama Squirrel; Love, Mouserella; Pouch!; and The Nice Book. He lives in New York City. Large portions of the art for this book were created with a four-and-a-half-year-old on his lap and a baby wandering the studio floor and gnawing on art supplies.