Arnold Lobel First Books

In 1961 he illustrated his first book. It was titled Red Tag Comes Back and was written by Fred Phleger. It told the story of a salmon who swims upstream to lay egges. This got him off to a good start because the very next year he illustrated his own story titled A Zoo for Mister Muster.

At the time, he was living in a Brooklyn apartment with his wife and their two young children, Adrianna and Adam. The Prospect Park Zoo was right across the meadow from their apartment, and Arnold and the children often visited it while enjoying ice cream cones together. These trips to the zoo are what gave him the idea for the Mister Muster book. He dedicated it to Anita, Adrianna, and Adam.