Loren Long

Loren Long is the author and illustrator of the New York Times bestselling picture books "Otis," "Otis and the Tornado," "Otis and the Puppy" and "An Otis Christmas."

He is the No. 1 New York Times best-selling illustrator of President Barack Obama’s picture book "Of Thee I Sing," the re-illustrated edition of "The Little Engine That Could" by Watty Piper and "Mr. Peabody’s Apples" by Madonna.

Loren grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, in the 1970s. He attended the University of Kentucky and had five different majors in five years of college. He took every art class they offered, and at the end of his junior year, he decided to try to be a professional artist.

By the end of college, he had gotten the bug to be an illustrator. However, he didn’t feel ready for a career in the illustration field, so he went to The American Academy of Art in Chicago.

His first job as an illustrator was at a greeting card company, which he held for about four years.

He then worked for nearly ten years as a freelance illustrator for mostly editorial clients such as Sports Illustrated, Time, Reader’s Digest and Forbes.

He began getting calls to do book covers for mostly YA novels and eventually an editor called him to do his first picture book, "I Dream of Trains" by Angela Johnson.