Laura Joffe Numeroff was born in Brooklyn, New York on July 14, 1953. When the time came for her to choose a college, she only applied to Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn for fashion design. She hated everything about it and ended up taking a class in writing and illustrating books for children because it sounded like a great class. She received an assignment to write and illustrate a children's book, and after completing it, made several attempts to get it published. After only 4 rejections, Macmillan bought it. She graduated from college with a degree and a contract for her first book. Since then she has written over twenty books including If You Give a Mouse a Cookie; What Mommies Do Best,… What Daddies Do Best; Laura Numeroff's Ten Step Guide to Living with Your Monster; and Phoebe Dexter Has Harriet Peterson's Sniffles. She has received numerous awards including the Buckeye Children's Book Award in 1989, the Quill Award for If You Give a Pig a Party in 2006, and the Milner Award in 2007. Two of her books were selected for Oprah's Kid's Reading List. Her title Ponyella made the New York Times Best Seller List for 2011. Her title If You Give a Dog a Donut earned her a spot on Publisher's Weekly Best Seller List for 2011. In 2012 her title It's Pumpkin Day, Mouse! made The New York Times Best Seller List.