With Parrish, in Paris.

         I was lucky to grow up in a house with original works by Cassatt, Modigliani, Pollock, Kline, Miro, and other great artists. Writing about art for adults came naturally to me. Exploring in Maine, Wyoming, Canada, Costa Rica, and other wild places, I learned about the birds and animals I write about for children.
        After graduating from Harvard with Honors, I taught art history and English at two top private schools, Buckingham Browne & Nichols in Cambridge, MA and Winsor in Boston. At BB&N I was honored with the Thurgood Marshall Award for communicating with diverse audiences. At Winsor I received the Outstanding Teacher award, among other honors. 
        I also helped develop a program for youth at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; practiced painting with the muralist Josh Winer; and studied design at the Boston Architectural College. 
      My wife, the photographer Parrish Dobson, and I live just outside Boston. We have a son in Yorba Linda, CA and a daughter in Nashville. Whenever we can, Parrish and I escape to an island in Maine. It's a great place to start a book! Other writers inspired here include Susan Minot, Margaret Wise Brown, Peyton Houston, Alice Greenway, and Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

          Harvard College: B.A. cum laude in English. (Honors thesis, The Child in Sarah Orne Jewett, published by Colby College).
          Boston University: M.A., American and English Literature; M.B.A.