Joseph Slate is an award-winning author of children’s books and a painter. He began his career as a journalist. Serving as editor of The Daily where he was awarded the University of Washington Top-Flight Award for journalism (1951). He joined the staff of The Seattle Times in 1951, working as a reporter for three years before becoming editor for Foreign Broadcast Information Service in 1955, a job he held until 1959. He attended Yale University, completing a BFA in 1960. In 1962, Slate began as an instructor at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. He became a professor of art in 1969, serving as chair of the art department from 1963 to 1975 and again from 1981 to 1982. He has served as a consultant and co-author with the late Professor Irvin Child of Yale University on his studies on the psychology of art (published in the fall, 1963 Art Journal as The Preconceptual Eye). He originated the National Endowment for the Arts “Fiction in Newspaper” program. Slate published his first picture book for children, The Star Rocker, in 1982. The story is a reworking of the Greek myth of Cassiopea. Since then, Slate has published 16 other books for children. His most popular books are the Miss Bindergarten series about a border-collie kindergarten teacher and her classroom. The books help to introduce young children to the idea of school and some of the things and activities they might encounter there, while reinforcing the alphabet and number skills. Merry Makers, Inc. created a Miss Bindergarten doll a musical based on two of the Miss Bindergarten books ran a 19-city tour in 2009.