Brock Cole was born in Charlotte, Michigan, in 1938. His family moved frequently throughout the Midwest, and he remembers going to the public library in each new community as a pleasurable focus in his young life. After graduate school he taught at the university level in Minnesota and Wisconsin before becoming a fulltime writer in 1975. His wife, whose academic career is in classical studies, and their two sons (now grown) continue to be the initial readers of his manuscripts. In an autobiographical sketch Cole wrote that his primary goal as a writer is to provide his youthful audience with an "honest view...

Cole is a talented writer and illustrator of children's picture books as well as an awardwinning writer for young adults. His water sketches for his picture books radiate a...