Tracey Campbell Pearson

Tracey Campbell Pearson grew up in Connecticut. After high school, she wanted to go to Paris. She ended up at Syracuse University, then at Parsons School of Design in New York City. While studying fashion illustration at Parsons, she discovered a class in children's book illustration. In the very first class she knew she had found what she wanted to do. She decided to change career plans while riding the elevator with her teacher. He got off the elevator and went home; she went back up and changed her major. Next, she went to the local bookstore to look for books by the instructor. She found several, including Where the Wild Things Are. Her class was taught by Maurice Sendak.

Elephant's Story was published by Margaret Ferguson Books Farrar Straus Giroux 2013


Twenty-five years and as many books later, it is her love of the process that keeps her creating picture books. Every book gives her the opportunity to grow as an illustrator and author. Each story asks to be a different book.

Tracey Campbell Pearson has been living in Vermont with her family for twenty years. She still spends a lot of time creating her own world in her head and in her books. She shares that world with her husband, two children, a dog, and a cat. They all love walking in the woods. Except the cat: he prefers the meadow.


Tracey writes about her dot, "In honor of the day...Elephant (from my book ELEPHANT'S STORY) turned himself into a dot...and rolled right off my drawing table!"


Learn more about Tracey on her website



BOB published by Farrar Straus Giroux

Tracey recently illustrated Carole Gerber's new book, TUCK-IN TIME (August 2014)