Brooklyn native Elliott Kreloff recalls drawing and telling stories from an early age, so much so his mother joked that she’d better buy some stock in a drawing paper company. Her early investment in art supplies did pay off, if not in dividends. Her son has gone on to a long career in design and illustration, with one of his titles named Best Book of the Year by Child Magazine.

Naturally, his early art experiences were formative, from taking Saturday art classes at the Brooklyn Museum to winning the 1967 Art & Writing Award from Scholastic Books when he was still a teenager. After graduating from the High School of Music and Art in the Bronx, he attended The Cooper Union to study art and later theater directing at Hunter College. At Cooper, he fell in love with typography and design.

Early in his career, a friend hired him to illustrate a magazine cover for a kids’ magazine called Science World. After that, he was hooked on illustrating for children, a field that lets an artist create extraordinary worlds while answering kids’ most pressing questions. In the early ’90s, he designed the first edition of the Scholastic Children’s Dictionary, which is still in print with the same interior design they created over 30 years ago.

Kreloff's work often features playful characters investigating the world around them. Some of his notable books include What's Up, Fire Truck? and Let's Play, Dad! In his latest picture book, Ooo Poo!, a rabbit and a fox ask the sort of scatological questions any five year old poses, and Kreloff’s illustrations and text give the answers with a ton of good humor as well as some fun facts. 

Kreloff, who has also designed toys, clothing, and website, has worked as an art director with Scholastic Inc., Disney Publishing Worldwide, and as an art educator at Parsons School of Design, New York Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, and Fordham.