Janice May Udry is an American author. She was born in Jacksonville, Illinois and graduated from Northwestern University in 1950. Her first book, A Tree is Nice, was awarded the Caldecott Medal in 1957 for Marc Simont's illustrations. Her papers are held at the University of Southern Mississippi.
This book was one I used to check out of the library over and over to read to our two (at the time) children. It was one of few with Black main characters and had a totally charming plot and wonderful illustrations. We also read What Mary Jo Shared, which was fun, too, but the story with a puppy was my kids' favorite.