Jack Prelutsky was born in Brooklyn, in 1940, and attended Hunter College in New York City. Although he claims to have hated poetry through most of his childhood, he rediscovered poetry later in life, and has devoted many years since to writing fresh, humorous poetry aimed specifically at kids.

"I realized poetry was a means of communication, that it could be as exciting or as boring as that person or that experience."

After stints as a truckdriver, photographer, folksinger, and more, he is now the author of more than thirty collections of original verse and anthologies of children's poetry, including Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins, 2006),The Beauty of the Beast: Poems from the Animal Kingdom (2006), The Random House Book of Poetry for Children (1983), Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep (1978), and The Queen of Eene (1976).

In 2006, Prelutsky was named the first Children’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. He lives in Washington state, and spends much of his time presenting poems to children in schools and libraries throughout the United States.