Jonathan London (born March 11, 1947) is an American writer of

children’s books Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

, best known as the author of the popular Froggy series.

Early life

London was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a career Navy officer and London lived with his parents and brother Jeff on or near Navy bases all over the country, including

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

, until he was 18 years old. In college at San Jose State University he studied history and social sciences but became a poet. After receiving an MA in Social Sciences he joined a dance company in San Francisco, wrote poetry and short fiction, and travelled around the world.

Career

London published around 200

poems Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

and short stories in

literary magazine A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evalu ...

s, worked in a union labor job, and didn’t make a living as a children’s book author until he was 45. His first published picture books were first told to his sons when they asked him to tell them a story. Aaron was five and Sean was two. They liked his stories so much he wrote them down, and one of them became FROGGY GETS DRESSED, which became a bestseller and is in on the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress) ...

100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know list. Since then he has published over 120 books, including 30 Froggy books. Over 16 million Froggy books have sold in North America, and they are published in 8 languages, including Mandarin, Russian, Persian, Greek, and Spanish. Many Froggy titles have appeared on the New York Times and other bestseller lists. London also writes picture books about wildlife, including ''Pup The Sea Otter'' (illustrated by his son Sean London), and has published Aaron’s Wilderness Trilogy of middle grade novels: ''Desolation Canyon, Bella Bella, and Grizzly Peak'' (illustrated by Sean London).

Awards

The Froggy series and other titles by London have received numerous awards and honors, such as the

100 Picture Books Everyone should Know list

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:London, Jonathan 1947 births Writers from Brooklyn San Jose State University alumni American children's writers Living people Writers from San Francisco