Donald Grant was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1954. After studying Fine Arts at the Pratt Institute, he worked as a barman and musician. His learnt most from his travels, spending 6 years traveling the globe, perhaps to learn and think about the world before choosing drawing as his medium for expression. This passion for traveling led him to France, where he settled and has now lived for the last 20 years. He has illustrated numerous children's books in genres ranging from nonfiction, detective stories, and other types of fiction. He is also a children's story writer. He is the illustrator of the following titles in the My First Discoveries series: Atlas of Space, Deserts, Dinosaurs at Large, Homes, In the Sky, Music, Planes, My First Encyclopedia of Why?, My First Encyclopedia of How?, My First Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs, and Prehistoric People.