Nancy Poydar grew up in eastern Massachusetts. After earning degrees in English and education from Tufts University, she studied art at the deCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. She taught sixth grade for fourteen years in Concord, Massachusetts. After developing an illustrator’s portfolio, she left teaching to illustrate and eventually write full time. Nancy draws her ideas from motherhood, the classroom, and especially from her own childhood.