Marc Brown was born on November 25th in Erie, Pennsylvania and worked as a truck driver, short-order cook, soda jerk, television art director, actor, costume and set designer, college professor and gentleman farmer before writing and illustrating children's books. Marc attended the Cleveland Institute of Art and illustrated his first book, What Makes the Sun Shine by Isaac Asimov, in 1970. The Arthur books happened from animal stories he told his son at bedtime. All the characters are modeled after people he knows and Arthur's Nose was the first book in the Arthur Adventure series. Arthur himself is modeled after Marc and his two sons, Tolon and Tucker. Look for his sons' names and his daughter, Eliza's, somewhere in all of the Arthur Adventure Books. Marc has now created more than one hundred books for children. Dinosaurs Beware: a Safety Guide was named a Notable Book of 1982 by the American Library Association. Marc now lives and works in Hingham, Massachusetts with his wife, Laurie Krasney Brown, also an author and illustrator. He says, "Books are my way to celebrate what is wonderful."