Ann Jonas was born in Flushing, New York in 1932. She attended Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York. After graduation, she worked in graphic design and married fellow Cooper Union graduate and graphic artist Donald Crews. When her husband's military service took them to Frankfurt, Germany in 1963, she worked for a German advertising agency. They moved back to New York and started a freelance design business where she continued to focus on graphic design and her husband focused on illustrating children's books.
After being urged by her husband and his editor to try her hand at creating picture books, she wrote and illustrated When You Were a Baby in 1982. Her other works include Round Trip, Now Can We Go?, The Quilt, Color Dance, Aardvarks, Disembark!, Splash!, Watch William Walk, and Bird Talk. She died on September 29, 2013 at the age of 81.
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