Barney Saltzberg was born in Los Angeles, California. He fell in love with drawing at an early age, encouraged primarily by his mother, who bought him drawing pads instead of coloring books so he could create his own art. Barney went on to study art at Sonoma State College in Northern California. Barney moved back to Los Angeles in the late 1970's and took a class at Otis/Parsons in children's book writing and illustration. His first published children's book, It Must Have Been the Wind, came out of that class. He now has published close to thirty books. Saltzberg carries around a sketchbook and is constantly doodling and writing things down. In addition to writing and illustrating… children's books he has recorded two albums for children. Where, Oh, Where's My Underwear? and most recently The Soccer Mom From Outer Space! He has also written and produced songs for the PBS show, Arthur.