Born on March 4, 1906, in the village of Wierum (located in the province of Friesland on the north coast of the Netherlands), Meindert DeJong came to the United States with his family in 1914. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the DeJongs settled, Meindert attended Dutch Calvinist secondary schools and Calvin College. He later attended the University of Chicago but left without a degree. During the Great Depression, DeJong held many different jobs and began writing for children and young adults only at the suggestion of a local librarian. He published his first book, The Big Goose and the Little White Duck, in 1938.

After completing several more books, DeJong joined the U.S. Army Air Corps during the Second World War and served in China. Readjusting to civilian life after the war, he continued his writing career, and during the 1950s wrote a book a year. He...