Ruth Krauss was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1911. She attended the Peabody Institute of Music in Baltimore and received a BA from the Parson’s School of Applied Art in New York City. During the 1940s and 1950s, Krauss spent time at the Bank Street Writer's Laboratory, where authors were encouraged to work directly with children; her A Hole Is to Dig (published in 1952) was written collaboratively with nursery school students and was illustrated by Maurice Sendak. The many outstanding illustrators Krauss worked with in the course of her long career include her husband, Crockett Johnson, the creator of the comic strip "Barnaby" and author of Harold and the Purple Crayon. A playwright and poet, as well as an author for children, Krauss died in 1993 at the age of 81. »

The Backward Day

By Ruth Krauss
Pictures by Marc Simont

Imagine your whole day lived backward, from beginning to end. When you got up, you'd put on your jacket, then your shirt and pants, and over those your underwear, because after all, backward is backward, and on a backward day backward is the way everything has to be. You'd walk downstairs backward and sit on your chair backward with your back to the table, and when your parents greeted you in the morning you'd say, of course, "Good night." But how long can a backward day go on? Just long enough for a smart kid to reverse the spell he's cast on the whole household and return everything to normal. This delightfully stylish picture book by the Caldecott Prize–winning team of Marc Simont and Ruth Krauss brings to life a humorous and engaging reversal of ordinary reality that will enchant young children, as well as parents.

Reviews

Ruth [Krauss] broke rules and invented new ones, and her respect for the natural ferocity of children bloomed into poetry that was utterly faithful to what was true in their lives.
— Maurice Sendak, The Horn Book

[Krauss] keeps on listening to the talk of small children, and as she transfers it to the page, her own imaginative use of their words is unlike that of anyone else writing for those 'before six'.
— New York Herald Tribune

Also see:

Picture Books Collection The Backward Day, D'Aulaires' Book of Animals, Jenny's Birthday Book, and The Two Cars

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