Valerie Worth (1933–1994) is the author of many books for children, including All the Small Poems and Fourteen More and Peacock and Other Poems, which appeared on Fanfare, The Horn Book's Honor List, and was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year.

Steve Jenkins (1952-2022) was the author, designer, and illustrator of more than eighty science and natural world picture books for young readers, including the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award-winner The Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest, and the Caldecott Honor Book What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? (co-created with his wife Robin Page). He also collaborated with many other authors, contributing his colorful torn paper art collages to April Pulley Sayre’s Squirrels Leap, Squirrels Sleep, Lisa Westberg Peters’ Volcano Wakes Up!, and Valerie Worth’s Pug and Other Animal Poems.

Valerie Worth (1933-1994)

Acclaimed poet Valerie Worth was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and grew up in nearby Swarthmore, where her father taught biology at Swarthmore College. The family then moved to Tampa, Florida, and Bangalore, India, where they lived for one year. Valerie returned to Swarthmore to attend college, graduating with an English degree and High Honors. Shortly thereafter she married George Bahlke, a fellow Swarthmore graduate. After settling in Clinton, NY, Valerie met Natalie Babbitt at Kirkland College, and Natalie began to illustrate Valerie's work, starting with Small Poems in 1972. Three more volumes followed: More Small Poems (1976); Still More Small Poems (1978); and Small Poems Again (1986). All four volumes were issued in a single paperback, All the Small Poems (1987), and seven years later, All the Small Poems and Fourteen More was released and was then followed by a paperback edition in 1996. In 2002, FSG posthumously published Peacock and Other Poems by Valerie Worth, with pictures by Natalie Babbitt, a collection of 27 poems which Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, said "heralds the joy of words." School Library Journal, in a starred review, declared that "[Valerie Worth's] work gives children something to admire and aim for."
Valerie Worth was honored by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) in 1991 with its Poetry Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, which acknowledges a body of work.