A Boy, a Dog, and a Frog by Mercer Mayer

The book There's a Nightmare in My Closet drew on Mayer's childhood fears of monsters in his room at night. He also produced If I Had a Gorilla about the advantages of ape ownership. Mayer was one of the first illustrators to be credited with using this format. It was notable for being a completely wordless picture book-one that tells its story entirely through the use of pictures. Mayer published his first book, A Boy, a Dog, and a Frog, at Dial Press in 1967. These new sketches persuaded editors at Dial Press and Harper & Row to give him some illustration work. During his spare time from his job at an advertising agency, the artist created a completely new portfolio. He also met an art director who told Mayer that his portfolio was so bad that he needed to throw it away. Mayer moved from Hawaii to New York City in 1964, pursuing further instruction at the Art Students League of New York, where he met an artist named Marianna who became his first wife. Though his professors feared the young artist would never be good enough to make a living as an illustrator, Mayer was not dissuaded. To that end, he created a portfolio of sketches and peddled them wherever he could. While attending school at the Honolulu Museum of Art, Mayer decided to enter the field of children's book illustration. There, Mayer graduated from high school in 1961. His father was in the United States Navy, so the family moved many times during his childhood before settling in Honolulu, Hawaii. Mayer is best known for his Little Critter and Little Monster series of books.

He has published over 300 books, using a wide range of illustrative styles. Mercer Mayer (born December 30, 1943) is an American children's author and illustrator.

A Boy, a Dog, and a Frog by Mercer Mayer