Kate McMullen spent her childhood in St. Louis, MO. After college and graduate school, she taught 4th Grade in Los Angeles and then at an American Air Force base in Germany. She wanted to be a writer, so she left teaching and moved to New York City where she worked in publishing and wrote in her free time. She met illustrator Jim McMullen, and in 1979 they married. She has written more than 100 children's books.