Learn More About Frank Asch

Though he is most known for his Moonbear picture books, Frank Asch has written in almost every category of children's literature including poetry, concept books, juvenile nonfiction, and children's novels.

His first picture book, George's Store , (McGraw-Hill) was published in 1968. Since graduating from Cooper Union in 1969 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Mr., Asch has travelled widely in the U.S. and abroad, taught public school in India and in a Montessori school in the U.S. and has conducted art, writing, puppetry, and creative dramatics workshops for children all over the country.
In 1976 Mr. Asch and his wife started their own children's theatre called The Belly Buttons . In 1979, their son Devin was born. In 1981 the Asch's moved to Vermont where they became part of a home schooling community. Frank started a puppet club with his son and his friends that performed in public schools.

In l989, Mr. Asch and Vladimir Vagin of the U.S.S.R. published Here Comes the Cat , which was the first Soviet/American collaboration on a children's book. Here Comes the Cat has received wide recognition in the U.S. and was awarded the Russian National Book Award.
More recently Mr. Asch has teamed up with naturalist/photographer, Ted Levin for a series of poetry books for children illustrated with full color photographs. Their first book, Sawgrass Poems was named to the John Burroughs List of Nature Books for Young Readers for 1996. Their second book, Cactus Poems won the same award in 1998.

Devin began his involvement in the illustration of Mr. Asch's stories with Moonbear's Pet in 1997, in which he first introduced the use of the computer for the colorization of the art work. By 1999, Mr. Asch was using the computer to illustrate all of his books.

More recently, Mr. Asch has returned once again to writing longer books for young readers with a new series entitled Class Pets. The series has four books, the first of which is entitled The Ghost of P.S. 42.

Besides writing and illustrating books, Mr. Asch enjoys working with children and adults and is currently creating family centered programs in his newly renovated barn/studio. He is also experimenting with short animations like Dear Moonbear.

Frank and Jan Asch live in Vermont with their dog, Robi. Devin lives in Los Angeles.