Author and illustrator Donald Carrick was born in Dearborn, Michigan, on April 8, 1929. He studied in Spain, at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, and the Vienna Academy of Art, and started his career as a portrait and landscape painter. He was asked to illustrate The Civil War in Spain in 1966.

As he went on to illustrate other titles, his editor suggested that he try to write and illustrate a children’s book of his own. His wife Carol pitched in with research and writing, and together they produced The Old Barn followed by a number of nature books. One of their most famous series is about Patrick's Dinosaurs. Together they created thirty-seven children’s books.

Donald always preferred to do his drawing from life, which sometimes meant crayfish living in the turkey roaster or turtles in the bathtub. Donald went on to write and illustrate The Tree in 1971 and Drip Drop in 1973. He died in 1989.