About this item

Crockett Johnson (born David Johnson Leisk, 1906-1975) and Ruth Krauss (1901-1993) were a husband-and-wife team that created such popular children's books as The Carrot Seed and How to Make an Earthquake. Separately, Johnson created the enduring children's classic Harold and the Purple Crayon and the groundbreaking comic strip Barnaby. Krauss wrote over a dozen children's books illustrated by others, and pioneered the use of spontaneous, loose-tongued kids in children's literature. Together, Johnson and Krauss's style--whimsical writing, clear and minimalist drawing, and a child's point-of-view--is among the most revered and influential in children's literature and cartooning, inspiring the work of Maurice Sendak, Charles M. Schulz, Chris Van Allsburg, and Jon Scieszka.



About the Author

Philip Nel

Philip Nel likes to read books. He also likes to write books. He is pleased that Amazon.com sells his books.Depending on your tolerance for the mundane, you might enjoy some more information about him. The very first book Philip Nel read all by himself was Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham. He was three years old, and enjoyed the experience so much that the next thing he did was re-read the book.In first grade, his favorite book was Jeff Brown's Flat Stanley. He briefly thought he could become two-dimensional, just like Flat Stanley. (He was wrong.) Today, Philip is a three-dimensional University Distinguished Professor of English at an American university with an ambiguous relationship to academic freedom. So, he has chosen not to list it here -  even though a Google search will quickly reveal which one.Indeed, if you punch his name into Google, you'll find traces of him all over the web. You'll also find other people named "Philip Nel," and many items of dubious utility.--------------------------------------------Author portrait by Eric Reynolds.



Read Next Recommendation

Report incorrect product information.