Happy birthday, Janet Stevens! Janet was born in Dallas, Texas on January 17th, but, because her father was in the Navy, she grew up in many places. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Colorado in Boulder. She had a job designing textiles for a Hawaiian shirt company but soon took her portfolio of rhinos in Hawaiian shirts to children's book publishers. She began illustrating for children in 1978. She has had several ALA notable books including To Market, To Market and And the Dish Ran Away With the Spoon. Tops and Bottoms won a Caldecott Honor Award. One of her most recent books is Help Me, Mr. Mutt! where she once again teams up with her sister, Susan Stevens Crummel.

These days, Janet illustrates using Adobe Photoshop with a big monitor and a stylus as a drawing tool. She scans, draws and adds textures all on the computer. Children can follow her illustration process in her book, From Pictures to Words: A Book About Making a Book. Janet lives and works in Boulder, Colorado.