Author and illustrator Kevin Henkes was born in Racine, Wisconsin on November 27th. Kevin was greatly influenced by picture books of his childhood and knew he wanted to be an artist from an early age. Is This You? By Ruth Kraus and Crockett Johnson and the art of Garth Williams were particular favorites. Encouraged by a high school English teacher, he was able to complete a draft of what became his first picture book, All Alone (1981), before graduating from high school. Henkes began using his familiar mouse characters in 1986 with Weekend with Wendell. His expressively drawn mouse characters are perfectly childlike in their feelings and relationships, and are a perfect marriage of text and illustration. Henkes was awarded a Caldecott Honor in 1994 for Owen, a picture book about a small mouse with a blankie problem. Henkes' amazing talent is also capable of the perfect rendering of the character of a twelve-year-old girl in hismiddle grade novel, Olive's Ocean. Olive discovers how a small ordinary gesture to someone she barely knew can produce extraordinary results. Awarded the Caldecott Medal for his 2004 picture book, Kitten's First Full Moon, the book is fascinating for its spare prose and use of many colors to create the richly textured black-and-white illustrations.

Kevin lives with his family in Madison, Wisconsin and works in a spare bedroom in their house. "As a child, my love of art defined me. And although I've had other interests at various times in my life, it was always art that I came back to. I also loved to read."