Background

David Carter was born on March 4, 1957, in Salt Lake City. He is a son of H. Craig and Lavon (Gill) Carter.

Education

David Carter studied at Utah State University.

Career

David Carter worked as a graphic designer and advertising illustrator during the late 1970s. Until 1987 he worked as an artist, a paper engineer and a book designer for a publishing house. After this he moved into his current career as an author, illustrator, and paper engineer, primarily of children's books. His first book was How Many Bugs in a Box? This book is a counting lesson, with successive page spreads depicting a different type and number of insects.

After working or collaborating on several other books, Carter returned to the insect world with the 1990 title More Bugs in Boxes. In 1989 he published What’s in My Pocket? that contains a series of five animals whose heads pop up as the pages are turned. With his wife, author and illustrator Noelle Carter, Carter has also created such titles as I’m a Little Mouse, Merry Christmas Little Mouse, Peek-a-Boo Little Mouse. Carter has also collaborated with several other authors of books for beginning readers, such as Mary Serfozo in then-1996 creation There’s a Square, and Peter Seymour, with whom Carter has worked for several years. In 2011 Carter designed a hardback book of graffiti design for the British band Coldplay's album Mylo Xyloto.

Achievements

• David Carter is known as an American writer and illustrator of several dozen pop-up books for young children. He is famous for his series of books called Bugs. He also designed a hardback book of graffiti design for the British band Coldplay's album in 2011.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Easter Bugs : A Springtime Pop-up by David A Carter

    (All kinds of bugs celebrate Easter in this book filled fr...)

    2001
  • Peek-A-Boo, Little Mouse

    (Preschoolers join Little Mouse in his search for his frie...)

    1993
  • Alpha Bugs: A Pop-up Alphabet

    (From boogie-woogie Bubble Bugs to upside-down Umbrella Bu...)

    1994
  • What's in the Deep Blue Sea?

    (Text, flaps, and movable illustrations present a variety ...)

    1990
  • How Many Bugs in a Box?: A Pop-up Counting Book

    (Here is the book that started the Bugs phenomenon! Inside...)

    1988
  • More Bugs in Boxes

    (What kind of bugs are in the yard-long yellow box? A bunc...)

    1990
  • What's in My Pocket?

    (Rabbit, Mouse, and other animals reveal what kinds of foo...)

    1989
  • I'm a Little Mouse: A Pat and Play Book

    (A small mouse approaches several animals who describe how...)

    1990

Views

One of the things that David Carter likes most about pop-up books is that a child who may not be reading yet can interact, or play, with the book. He is hoping that this will draw the young reader into the book and hopefully into reading in general.

Quotations: "In the beginning of my career as an author, illustrator, and paper engineer, I honestly did not give much thought to why I created my books. They just happened, they were a compilation of many influences. I have always been an artist. I have always been very stimulated by visual images. To this day the first thing I do when I pick up any book, including a novel, is looking for pictures".

"A few years ago I received an e-mail from a student of children’s literature. She asked a couple of questions about my work, and one, in particular, got me to thinking. She asked me to describe an average day in the life of an eight-year-old David Carter. My answer was simple. I would play outside all day spending hours on end in the fields around my home, lifting up rocks and boards in search of bugs. It was always very exciting to lift up the rocks because I never knew what I would find. I actually started to chuckle at this answer. Lifting something to find a bug was one of my greatest thrills as a child and that is exactly what I had created, unconsciously, in How Many Bugs in a Box?"

"My goal in creating a book is to engage this natural curiosity, to entertain with surprise and silliness and whenever possible to educate, because for me the end result of curiosity is learning".

Interests

• Traveling, gardening

• Sport & Clubs

  Tennis

Connections

David Carter married Noelle L. Carter on August 10, 1985. They have two daughters, Molly and Emma.

Father:

H. Craig

H. Craig was a draftsperson.

Mother:

Lavon Carter

Wife:

Noelle L. Carter