The questions his children asked over the years have been the inspiration for many of their books. Their youngest son, Jamie, was born in 1998. In 1994 they moved to from New York City to Boulder, Colorado, where they work in a studio attached to their house, which was built in the 1880s and often functions as if it were still the 19th century. It was, in many ways, the best part of the day. My wife and I read to our two older children almost every night until hisdaughter was 12 or 13, long after they were reading on their own. They began reading to them when they were just a few months old, and Steve became interested in making children's books himself. Their daughter Page was born in 1986 and our son, Alec, two years later. Robin, also an author and illustrator, is his frequent collaborator - they've made sixteen children's books together. After graduation he moved to New York City, where he worked in advertising and design, first in large firms and then with his wife, Robin Page, in their own small graphic design firm. At the last minute, he chose instead to go to art school in North Carolina, where he studied graphic design. His interest in science led me to believe that I'd be a scientist himself.

His parents read to him until he could read himself, and he became an obsessive reader. Wherever he lived, he kept a menagerie of lizards, turtles, spiders, and other animals, collected rocks and fossils, and blew things up in his small chemistry lab.īecause he moved often, Steve didn't have a large group of friends, and he spent a lot of time with books.

Steve lived in North Carolina, Panama, Virginia, Kansas, and Colorado. His father, who would become a physics professor and astronomer (and recently his co-author on a book about the Solar System), was in the military and, later, working on science degrees at several different universities. Steve was born in 1952 in Hickory, North Carolina.

The Animal Book by Steve Jenkins