Kimberly Dean

Kimberly Dean is an artist and children's author based in Savannah, Georgia, who has co-written the Pete the Cat picture books with her husband, James Dean, since 2013.

She and James both left corporate jobs in the late 1990s to work as artists. James first drew Pete in 1999, basing him on a cat from a Georgia animal shelter, and self-published The Misadventures of Pete the Cat, which Wikipedia dates to 2006. The first four Pete books for HarperCollins had text by Eric Litwin; that partnership ended in 2012, reportedly because James wanted to work with other writers, his wife among them. Kimberly made her debut as co-author in October 2013 with two HarperCollins titles, Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses and Pete the Cat: The First Thanksgiving. The couple had first tried to write a picture book together at their kitchen table in 2004 but abandoned the attempt. The series now runs to more than 60 titles, and Kimberly is also co-credited on Pete the Cat and the Bedtime Blues and has illustrated Pete the Cat and the Missing Cupcakes. The couple work in side-by-side studios at their home in Savannah.

For collectors

Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses (HarperCollins, 2013) is one of her two earliest books and marks the start of her co-authorship of the series, so it is the natural first title for a collection of her work. The series is large and often reprinted, so check the copyright page for a first printing line before describing a copy.