Tom Toro is a cartoonist and award-winning children's book author & illustrator whose work has been a popular feature of The New Yorker for over a decade. His drawings also have appeared in The New York Times, the Paris Review, and other national publications. He is the creator of the syndicated comic strip Home Free. Tom’s books include How to Potty Train Your Porcupine (Little, Brown), A User's Guide to Democracy (Celadon), I'm Terrified of Bath Time and Back to School, Backpack! in collaboration with Simon Rich (Little, Brown), and Tiny Hands (Dock Street Press). He is the recipient of the 2023 Missouri Building Block Picture Book Award and was a finalist for the 2019 and 2022 Reuben awards for gag cartoonist of the year. He serves as the current chair of the Northwest Chapter of the National Cartoonist Society. His literary fiction has been shortlisted for the Disquiet International Literary Prize, and he contributed a dozen essays to The New Yorker Encyclopedia of Cartoons. Tom has been profiled by NPR, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Huffington Post. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife, kid and cats.