Author Information:

ABOUT RICHARD Richard Torrey was born in Los Angeles, CA. where he began doodling as soon as he could hold a crayon. In third grade, Richard showed a picture of a horse he had drawn to the legendary comic strip creator, Charles Schulz. Schulz drew Snoopy on the back of the picture, inspiring Richard to follow a similar career path. After graduating from Allegheny College with a BA in Psychology, Torrey created the first of two successful syndicated comic strips; Hartland (King Features), followed with the sports strip, PETE and CLETE (Creators Syndicate), both of which appeared in hundreds of newspapers around the world. Since then, Richard has been an author, illustrator, and editorial cartoonist, as well as the creator of a top-selling line of greeting cards for Recycled Paper Greetings Inc. He has written and illustrated 15 books, including award winners: ALLY-SAURUS AND THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL (Sterling), and MY DOG, BOB (Holiday House), as well as the popular three book series: ALMOST, WHY?, and BECAUSE (HarperCollins Publishers). He has also illustrated dozens of books for Simon & Schuster, Golden Books, McGraw-Hill, and Scholastic. For nearly three decades, Richard has been on the faculty and taught classes at the Art League of Long Island. The son of Hockey Hall-of-Famer, Bill Torrey, Richard lives in Long Island, New York, with his wife and two children.