Marguerite Henry, born Marguerite Breithaupt on April 13, 1902, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was the youngest of five children. Her father was a printer and publisher, and by age eleven, Henry was not only proofreading for him but had also published a story of her own in the Delineator, a woman's magazine. After graduating with a teaching degree from Milwaukee State Teachers College, she married Sidney Crocker Henry, who shared her strong interest in animals. They first lived in Chicago, where Henry wrote articles for furniture trade magazines and then for periodicals with a wider readership, such as the Saturday Evening Post and Forum. In 1939 they moved to the outskirts of Wayne, Illinois, where the country setting enabled Henry to observe animals and birds at close hand, inspiring her to write animal books.

Her first children's book, Auno and Tauno, was published in 1940. Written for preschoolers, this...