Tomie DePaola

Tomie dePaola (born September 15, 1934) is an author with a forty-year career and a lifelong taste for things artistic. His interest in art reaches all the way back to his childhood. While growing up in Meriden, Connecticut, his love of reading was nurtured by his mother, who was herself a staunch reader and book lover. Young Tomie possessed a profound interest in drawing and dancing, soon becoming a proficient in both. He danced in performances in various places, and provided exhibitions and theaters with his own art. DePaola attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, where he honed his drawing skills with rigorous practice. His hard work did not bear fruit for several years, as he could not find a publisher for his first book; he was, however, offered a job illustrating another author's work, and dePaola's own publication soon followed. Two hundred books, illustrations, and several awards later, dePaola, now sixty-nine, is by no means finished, and continues his outstanding work in New London, New Jersey.

Works by Tomie dePaola include:

• Sound (illustrator)
• 26 Fairmount Avenue
• Strego Nona
• Meet the Barkers
• The Wonderful Dragon of Timlin