Animals Born Alive and Well

“Here are twenty double-page spreads all bright with mammals. Large, tiny, prehistoric, unusual—they are all here in repeatable rhymes, and a million-dollar word (viviparous) is tossed in for good measure.”

—The Provident Bookfinder“Both simple and surprising, Heller’s sprightly picture books use verse and unusually harmonious pictures to introduce the animal kingdom. Chickens lists some of the many good things that come in egg packages, while Animals mentions all manner of mammals.”—Publishers Weekly

Ruth Heller (1923-2004) received a fine arts degree from the University of California at Berkeley and completed two years of graduate work in design at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. She began her career designing wrapping paper, cocktail napkins, greeting cards, and coloring books.

After five years of rejection and one complete revision, Heller’s first book, Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones, about egg-laying animals, was published in 1981. Its success led to the sequel, Animals Born Alive And Well (1982), about mammals. In 1983 and 1984, her third and fourth titles, The Reason For A Flower (about plants with seeds and flowers) and Plants That Never Ever Bloom (about plants that do not), were published.

She then began work on the How To Hide series, a collection of six books on camouflage and its magic in nature, covering insects, birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and sea creatures. Her next collection was a five-volume series on parts of speech: A Cache of Jewels and Other Collective Nouns; Kites Sail High - A Book About Verbs; Many Luscious Lollipops - A Book About Adjectives; Merry-Go-Round - A Book About Nouns; and Up, Up and Away - A Book About Adverbs.

Heller also wrote and illustrated Color, a guide to the four-color printing process. Notable influences on her writing include Ogden Nash, Gilbert and Sullivan, Edward Lear, Hilaire Belloc, and Dr. Seuss.

Heller stated, “All my books are nonfiction picture books in rhyme. I find writing in rhyme enjoyable and challenging, and I think it is an easy way for children to learn new facts and acquire a sophisticated vocabulary. Children are not intimidated by big words. I try to make my writing succinct and allow the illustrations to convey as much information as possible.”

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