Eric Hill, creator of the most popular puppy in children's books, celebrates his birthday on September 7th. Hill left school at the age of 15 and was hired as a messenger for a commercial art studio, where a newspaper cartoonist taught him a simple drawing style with ink and watercolor.
Hill was working as a freelance artist and designer when he came up with the idea for Where's Spot in 1980. He noticed that his two-year-old son was amused by advertising flaps and hidden pictures. He combined the flap concept with his love for dogs and the book was an instant success. Spot and his adventures have been made into board books and movies. The interactive books have been translated into fifty languages in one hundred countries.
