Dan Yaccarino (born May 20, 1965) is an American author, illustrator, television writer, and producer, who is known for his

animated series An animated series, or a cartoon series, is a set of Animation, animated films with a common title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same main heroes, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series ...

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

s and award-winning imagery. Yaccarino created the Nick Jr. preschool series ''

Oswald Oswald may refer to: People *Oswald (given name), including a list of people with the name * Oswald (surname), including a list of people with the name Fictional characters *Oswald the Reeve, who tells a tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's ''The Canterbu ...

''.

Biography

Born in Montclair, NJ, Yaccarino was influenced by a combination of advertising, comic books, vintage animation, toys, and old films, spending his childhood immersed in drawing, writing, and making movies. Yaccarino attended

Otis College of Art and Design Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California, United States. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aero ...

in Los Angeles, CA, as well as Parson School of Design in NYC, where he earned a BFA in illustration in 1987. "I'm inspired by other children’s book authors and illustrators," Yaccarino was quoted in saying, "as well as people from other fields like the director

Henry Selick Charles Henry Selick Jr. (; born November 30, 1952) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his work in stop motion animation and for directing the films ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ''James and the Giant Peach (film) ...

and singer-songwriter

Brian Wilson Brian Douglas Wilson (June 20, 1942 – June 11, 2025) was an American musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often Brian Wilson is a genius, called a genius for his novel approaches to pop compositio ...

." Very soon after graduation, he began a commercial illustration career, starting with the ''

New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'', quickly moving on to national newspapers and magazines, as well as advertising campaigns.

Children's literature

Yaccarino wrote and illustrated his first picture book ''Big Brother Mike'' in 1993 and has created dozens of books for children since, most notably ''Every Friday'', ''The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau'', ''Unlovable'' and the autobiographical, ''All the Way To America: The Story of A Big Italian Family and A Little Shovel. ''He has also illustrated stories written by some of the most prestigious names in children's literature, including

Margaret Wise Brown Margaret Wise Brown (May 23, 1910 – November 13, 1952) was an American writer of children's books, including ''Goodnight Moon'' (1947) and ''The Runaway Bunny'' (1942), both illustrated by Clement Hurd. She has been called "the laureate of the ...

, Jack Prelutsky, and Kevin Henkes. Yaccarino's work in children's literature has garnered many glowing reviews and a worldwide following. He has been invited over the years to the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

to share his books and participate in the annual Easter festivities. He has also presented his work at

Pixar Animation Studios Pixar (), doing business as Pixar Animation Studios, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Pixar is a subsidiary of Walt Disney S ...

and keynoted several children's literature conferences.

Series

He is the creator and executive producer of

Apple TV+ Apple TV+ is an American subscription over-the-top streaming service owned by Apple. The service launched on November 1, 2019, and it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service w ...

's ''Doug Unplugs'', the Nick Jr. series ''

'', and ''

Willa's Wild Life ''Willa's Wild Life'' is an animated television series based on Dan Yaccarino's book '' An Octopus Followed Me Home.'' The series originally aired on Qubo in the United States (and has been put back on Qubo's schedule from 2019 to 2020), YTV in ...

'' (with Canada-based

Nelvana Nelvana Limited (; also known as Nelvana Enterprises, Nelvana International or Nelvana Digital; commonly known as Nelvana; stylized as "nelvana") is a Canadian animation studio and entertainment production company owned by Corus Entertainment s ...

), as well as the character designer behind Nick Jr.'s ''

The Backyardigans ''The Backyardigans'' ( ) is an animated musical children's television series created by Janice Burgess for Nickelodeon. The series was written and recorded at Nickelodeon Animation Studio. It centers on five anthropomorphic animal neighbors ...

''. ''

Animation Magazine ''Animation Magazine'' is an American print magazine and website covering the animation industry and education, as well as visual effects. The print magazine is published 10 times a year in the United States. History ''Animation Magazine'' was f ...

'' hails him as "an American original".

Illustration

Yaccarino's illustrations have adorned the pages of such publications as ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'', ''

Travel & Leisure ''Travel + Leisure'' is a travel magazine based in New York City, New York (state), New York. Published 12 times a year, it has 4.8 million readers, according to its corporate media kit. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC ( ...

'', ''

Business Week ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...

'', ''

Network World International Data Group (IDG, Inc.) is an American market intelligence and demand generation company focused on the technology industry. IDG, Inc.'s mission is centered around supporting the technology industry through research, data, market ...

'', ''

Psychology Today ''Psychology Today'' is an American media organization with a focus on psychology and human behavior. The publication began as a bimonthly magazine, which first appeared in 1967. The print magazine's reported circulation is 275,000 as of 2023. ...

'', and ''

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Clay Felker and Milton Glaser in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'' a ...

''. He has created images for a wide variety of corporate projects and advertising campaigns as well, including Cotton Inc,

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

and Gardenburger. His work is widely received in Japan, and he has worked extensively for clients such as

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

and Nikkei.

Partial bibliography

*''Big Brother Mike'' *''Bam Bam Bam'' *''One Hole in the Road'' *''If I Had a Robot'' *''Zoom Zoom Zoom! I’m Off to the Moon!'' *''Good Night, Mr. Night'' *'' An Octopus Followed Me Home'' *''Five Little Pumpkins'' *''Five Little Ducks'' *''Little White Dog'' *'' Circle Dogs'' *''Trashy Town'' *''Deep in the Jungle'' *''Blast Off Boy and Blorp: First Day on a Strange New Planet'' *''Blast Off Boy and Blorp: New Pet'' *''Blast Off Boy and Blorp: The Big Science Fair'' *''Come With Me'' *''Surviving Brick Johnson'' *''

'' *''Unlovable'' *''The Good Little Bad Little Pig'' *''The Lima Bean Monster'' *''Dan Yaccarino’s Mother Goose'' *''Where the Four Winds Blow'' *''Bittle'' *''The Birthday Fish'' *''Every Friday'' *''Who Will Sing a Lullaby?'' *''Go Go America'' *''Little Boy With a Big Horn'' *''The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau'' *''Lawn to Lawn'' *''Cooking With Henry and Ellibelly'' *''All the Way To America: The Story of A Big Italian Family and A Little Shovel'' *''The Belly Book'' *''Boy & Bot'' *''Kate and Nate Are Running Late'' *''Doug Unplugged'' *''Zorgoochi Intergalactic Pizza'' *''Billy & Goat at the State Fair'' *''The Happyland series'' *''Class Pet Squad: Journey to the Center of Town'' *''I am a Story'' *''Morris Mole'' *''Giant Tess'' *''Smashy Town'' *''The Longest Storm'' *''City Under the City'' *''Big Jobs/Bold Women #1- Firefighter Flo'' *''Big Jobs/Bold Women #2- Crane Jane'' *''One Two, Grandma Loves You''

References

External links

Official Website
* 7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast Interview with Dan Yaccarino: http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1628
Dan Yaccarino on IMDB
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yaccarino, Dan American children's writers American illustrators Parsons School of Design alumni Living people 1965 births Writers from Montclair, New Jersey Writers who illustrated their own writing American people of Italian descent