Kurt Wiese was born April 22, 1887 in Minden, Germany. In 1909, he went to China to work in the export trade, remaining there for several years and during World War I was interned by the British and Japanese as an enemy alien in Australia. It was during this period of imprisonment that Wiese began to draw and consider illustrating as a career, and at the War's end, he decided to leave the export business. Returning to Germany for several years, he left for Brazil in 1923 due to economic conditions. In Brazil, Wiese illustrated school and children's books. In 1927, he came to the United States, and began his long and prolific career as an illustrator and author of children's books. Wiese's first major success was his illustrations for Felix Salten's Bambi in 1929, and throughout his career illustrated many well-known author's works as well his own. Wiese received Caldecott Honor citations for You Can Write Chinese in 1946 and Fish in the Air in 1948. He also illustrated the Newbery Award winner Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze, as well as the Newbery Honor books Honk the Moose, Li Lun, Lad of Courage, and Daughter of the Mountains. For several of these works and many others, Wiese drew on his experiences in China and knowledge of the language, customs, and landscape. Wiese also illustrated Walter Rollin Brooks' popular "Freddy" series, that detailed the humorous experiences of Freddy the pig. Wiese worked in a variety of media but his two favorites were lithography and Chinese brushes. Kurt Wiese published his last work The Thief in the Attic in 1965, and died on May 27, 1974 in Idell, New Jersey.