Frank Asch

Frank Asch is the author of many picture books aimed at young readers. In 1989 he and Russian author Vladimir Vagin became the first Russian/American collaborators to write a children's book published simultaneously in both the United States and the Soviet Union. Here Comes the Cat tells of a village of mice fearful of the approach of a cat, until they realize the cat comes in friendship. The story, of course, was meant as a fable about cold war-era tensions between East and West; these tensions were soon to come to an end with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Other Asch titles include The Sun Is My Favorite Star, in which a young boy becomes aware of how the sun wakes him in the morning, plays hide-and-seek with him throughout the day, and says good night to him as he goes to bed. "Radiating the calm coziness of a child who feels safe and secure enough in the world to explore and explain it," a critic for Publishers Weekly wrote, "this volume warms the heart." Carolyn Phelan in Booklist called the title a "bright and simple picture book."

In Class Pets: The Ghosts of P.S. 42 two mice—brother and sister—find a new home at the local school, where they make friends with the ghost of a gerbil and encounter a mean gray cat who wants them out of the building. They also, noted Beth Tegart in School Library Journal, "find out about life in a school, caring children, loyalty, ghosts, and survival." A critic for Kirkus Reviews called the book "tongue-in-cheek" and the story's central conflict "a hilariously different game of cat-and-mouse." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly described Class Pets as "an agreeable romp of a tale."

Asch once wrote, "I do kid's books because I like to draw and make up stories which express my feelings and kids' feelings, and because it enables me to put my artistic ability and training to some tangible use."