Children's illustrator and graphic designer Simms Taback was raised in the Bronx, New York, and graduated from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. He taught at the School of Visual Arts and Syracuse University. Taback has illustrated several books for Katy Hall, Ilsa Eisenberg and other writers. His illustration of I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly won a Caldecott Honor Award Medal (1998).