

Eventually, freed of other obligations, he plunged full time into both writing and illustrating children's books.

It drove him through the years of teaching, designing greeting cards and stage sets, and painting church murals until 1965, when he illustrated his first children's book, Sound, by Lisa Miller for Coward-McCann.

His determination to create books for children led to a BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and an MFA from the California College of Arts & Crafts in Oakland, California. By the time he could hold a pencil, he knew what his life's work would be. Tomie dePaola was born in Meriden, Connecticut, in 1934 to a family of Irish and Italian background.
