About Chris Barton:
Chris Barton is an American author of children's books. His books has been included on numerous lists citing the best children's books of the year.
Barton grew up in Sulphur Springs, Texas, with his parents and older brother, though his father died when Barton was eight years old.Both of his parents, as well as his mother's parents had also grown up in Sulphur Springs.
In 1993, he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin (UT) with a degree in history. During his time at UT, he wrote for The Daily Texan.
In 2014, Barton pitched the idea of the Modern First Library (MFL) to BookPeople, an independent bookstore in Austin, which they followed up on.MFL "builds on book shoppers' inclination to buy a kid a "classic" picture book and leads them to also buy a new picture book that's more reflective of the modern, diverse society that those kids are growing up in."
Barton currently lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, Jennifer Ziegler. Together, they have four adult children.