Ruth Krauss was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1911. She attended the Peabody Institute of Music in Baltimore and received a BA from the Parson's School of Applied Art in New York City. During the 1940s and 1950s, Krauss spent time at the Bank Street Writer's Laboratory, where authors were encouraged to work directly with children; her A Hole Is to Dig (published in 1952) was written collaboratively with nursery school students and was illustrated by Maurice Sendak. The many outstanding illustrators Krauss worked with in the course of her long career include her husband, Crockett Johnson, the creator of the comic strip Barnaby and author of Harold and the Purple Crayon. A playwright and poet, as well as an author for children, Krauss died in 1993 at the age of 81. Marc Simont has illustrated nearly a hundred books. He won a Caldecott Honor in 1950 for illustrating Ruth Krauss's The Happy Day, and in 1957 he was awarded the Caldecott Medal for his pictures in A Tree Is Nice by Janice May Udry.
“For some reason, young children get an absurd kick out of doing things backward, or spelling words backward, or otherwise behaving contrariwise for comic effect…Ruth Krauss’s 1950 picture book, The Backward Day–just revived in elegant hardback as part of the New York Review Children’s Collection–speaks directly to this anarchic impulse…Marc Simont’s appealing drawings reflect…the timeless sweetness of a family joke shared.” –The Wall Street Journal"The Backward Day by Ruth Krauss, illus. by Marc Simont, celebrates one boy's revelry as he tries to experience his day backward. With a bold palette, Simont's inky illustrations enchant, as do the youngster's family, whose 1950s primness gives way as they gamely play along with the boy's antics." --Publishers Weekly“She keeps on listening to the talk of small children, and as she transfers it to the page, her own imaginative use of their words is unlike that of anyone else writing for those ‘before six.’ ” —New York Herald Tribune“The season for giving books to children comes again, and this column will be directed to parents, aunts, uncles who wish children to ‘make friends with books’…for youngsters under 7 we call attention to…The Backward Day, by Ruth Krauss.” —Los Angeles Times “She always manages to find a focal point which comes right out of the real life of a young child.” —Junior Reviewers Adults reading Krauss's books are “catapulted into the world of children.” —The Atlantic Monthly
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