About the Emberleys

Ed Emberley

Ed Emberley has written and illustrated over 100 books, including books written by his wife, Barbara, and by other collaborators. Besides his immensely popular Drawing Book series, Ed is probably best known for his bold yet detailed illustrative work on the 1968 Caldecott Medal winner, Drummer Hoff (written by Barbara) and for the clever and bestselling Go Away, Big Green Monster!, a feat of paper engineering which has sold over a million copies. In total, Ed’s books have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.

Ed Emberley’s books plant the seeds for a more advanced understanding of artistic elements and concepts. As Ed himself has said about his Drawing Book series, “If a child gets satisfaction or consolation from imitating the creations of another—let them go to it. Before you know it, they’ll modify, embellish, improvise to create something of her/his very own. And, best of all, they’ll enjoy!”

Rebecca Emberley

Rebecca Emberley is an accomplished best-selling children’s author and illustrator who has created more than 40 books for children, including several highly successful bilingual books. She is also the daughter—and sometimes creative partner—of Ed Emberley.

Rebecca was creatively trained by both her parents in everything from oil painting to sewing. Her aesthetic preference is collage which is the medium she uses in her books. At the start of her career, she created collages by hand – either paper on paper or sometimes found objects – but now she has begun scanning paper into the computer and manipulating her images digitally. She is also experimenting with silk screening and graphic design. She travels the world finding inspiration for her stories and art.

Rebecca’s ingenious bilingual (English / Spanish) board books have carved out their own niche in the marketplace since the series began in the 1990’s. These colorful books help children learn their first words in both languages, introducing them to colors, numbers, animals and much more. Rebecca also creates concept books which encourage young readers to learn new sounds and say them out loud, such as City Sounds and Jungle Sounds. These books both evocatively bring to life new settings through vivid images and new noises for children to experiment with.