Reference to Lobel’s biography
"Born in Los Angeles in 1933, Lobel was brought up mainly in Schenectady, N.Y., after his parents divorced and arranged for Lobel’s grandparents — German Jewish immigrants — to take care of him. He described himself in later years as an unhappy child who took refuge in the local library, where he found picture books that were “capable of suggesting everything that is good about feeling well and having positive thoughts about being alive,” as he would later write.
"Lobel earned a degree in fine arts from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1955, marrying Anita Kempler, a classmate, the same year. They lived across the street from the Prospect Park Zoo, which they visited often with their children. So perhaps it’s unsurprising that animal characters began to figure heavily into Lobel’s illustrations and early books in the ’60s.
"But his real breakthrough came in 1970, when an editor convinced him to try writing for “early readers” (a genre Dr. Seuss had just made popular). Lobel decided to draw on his childhood memories of summers spent in Vermont, where he was allowed to adopt frogs and toads as pets. Over nine years and four books, his central characters emerged as incredibly relatable protagonists, learning life lessons as humans do and forging a dynamic friendship over the course of their adventures around the pond."
