Arlene Mosel was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1921. She was a librarian and an author who wrote two award-winning children’s picture books with Blair Lent: Tikki Tikki Tembo, which won the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award and was an ALA Notable Book as well as a New York Times pick for best children’s book, and The Funny Little Woman, which won the Caldecott Medal and a 1974 Hans Christian Andersen International Children’s Book Award.