Marcus Pfister was born the 30th of July 1960 in Bern, Switzer- land. He attended the Art School of Bern and then completed an apprenticeship as a Graphic Designer. From 1981-1983 he worked as a Graphic Designer at the publicity agency Alexandre Ott in Zurich. He then took off six months and traveled across the United States, Canada and Mexico. When he re- turned to Switzerland he started working as an independent Graphic Artist. Between 1984 and 1985 he made the sketches for his first picture book “The Sleepy Owl". It was published in 1986 by North-South Books, this was the beginning of a long collaboration. Until 1992, Marcus worked simultaneously as a Graphic Designer and as an author/illustrator of children's books. In 1992 he burst onto the international scene with his book "The Rainbow Fish", which convinced him to focus solely on writing and illustrating his own books. Up to now 65 books of Marcus Pfister have been published. They have been translated into more than 60 languages. The total number of published copies has exceeded 30 millions. As an illustrator, Marcus has never bound himself to a definite style of art and surprises his audience again and again with new techniques and images. One can see this in "The Magic Book" with an elaborate folder-technique, the split pages in "Milo and the Magical Stones" which tells a story with two different endings, and in "The Rainbow Fish" series with the use of holographic foil. There is always a surprise for his readers with new and exciting effects. He is now concentrating on developing new characters and artistic concepts for his picture books. Marcus Pfister has four children and lives with his wife Debora in Bern, Switzerland. His book signing tours have taken him to Korea, Japan, the United States and many European Countries. His hobbies are photographing wildlife in the Rainforest, creating sculptures and playing basketball.

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