Jean Marzollo was born and raised in Manchester, Connecticut.

She says, "As a child, I loved to read and sew dolls' clothes, one outfit after another. I am a graduate of Manchester High School, the University of Connecticut, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. After working as a high school English teacher and editor of Scholastic's "Let's Find Out" kindergarten magazine with Carol Devine Carson for 20 years, I began writing children's books. I have written over 130 books, including the award-winning, best-selling I SPY series for children, written completely in rhythm and rhyme. Rhythm and rhyme are like music without the tune; they lure and excite the ear. Children love rhythm and rhyme, and so do I. Do you know that I SPY actually has the same rhythm as "Old Mother Hubbard" and also rap? I treasure the beautiful, intricate photographs by Walter Wick in the I SPY books. When I wrote the first I SPY book, I automatically thought of kindergarten children so everything that I called for was concrete, something a 5-year-old can find. The result is a hunting game that children and grownups can play together successfully. Sometimes children are better than their parents! In recent years I took up painting and have begun to illustrate my own "books on paper" and "books online." You can see them on my website: jeanmarzollo.com. Writing and illustrating picture books today is as much fun as sewing dolls' clothes was when I was in third grade. As soon as I'm done with one book, I'm happily compelled to start the next."

Jean Marzollo lives in Upstate New York.

www.JeanMarzollo.com

When I was young I was a reluctant reader. It was hard for me to sit still and read a book. I preferred activities that got me moving, like neighborhood ball games, bike riding, skiing, sledding, skating, climbing trees, and exploring the woods in Connecticut where I grew up.

I also taught myself to draw. I became fascinated with shapes, shading, and trying to make the objects in my drawings appear to pop out in 3-D. Later I became interested in photography. I took pictures in the woods with my camera, tinkered with equipment in the darkroom, and experimented with artistic effects.

Much later I became the photographer of the I SPY books, in collaboration with writer Jean Marzollo. I did more than take the pictures. I thought of and sketched ideas, collected and made props, built sets, arranged and hid objects, adjusted lights, and then took the picture. I rearranged objects and took another picture -- sometimes over and over again.

I write as well as illustrate my own books now. In A DROP OF WATER, I combine simple text with clear photographs to explain science secrets of the everyday world. In WALTER WICK'S OPTICAL TRICKS, the world is turned upside down with impossible objects, phantom images, and other perplexing illusions. With the CAN YOU SEE WHAT I SEE? series, I continue the picture-puzzle tradition, taking readers on amazing journeys of the imagination in their quest for hidden objects. With my latest, HEY, SEYMOUR! you can join Seymour and his new friend Buttons on their adventures. Discover different worlds and the objects hidden in them with fold out flaps in this ever expanding search-and-find.

Happy reading!

Walter Wick