John Himmelman was born in Kittery, Maine and moved to Long Island, New York when he was about two. He enrolled in the School of Visual Arts in 1977. Cartooning and advertising seemed to be the direction he was heading in. For the fun of it, he took a course in writing and illustrating children's books, where he wrote Talester the Lizard, which became his first published book. Himmelman graduated college in 1981 with a BFA. To pay the bills, he worked as a cook and then as a carpenter, working on his books at night. It took about six years before he could make a full time living in children's books. Himmelman has been involved in several conservation issues and was a director on the board… of the Killingworth Land Conservation Trust. In August of 1994, he became one of the founding directors of the CT Butterfly Association. He has also completed a mural for the Science Museum in Boston called A Bird's World. Himmelman has written and illustrated over 50 children's books, many with nature-related themes. He and fellow children's book author/illustrator, Kay Kudlinski, founded a "traveling school" to teach others how to get published as a children's book writer and/or illustrator. The school is called Storycraft Studios.