Stein tends to listen to the same album over and over when working on a book. Stein says, 'What would make me laugh if I was a kid? I always write from that perspective.' He explains that music influences his work as well as the view from his home-office in Queens. He has also won the Caldecott Honor for Interrupting Chicken in 2011 and the Ezra Jack Keats award for Leaves in 2008. Since then he has published over 10 books! Stein's books have been reviewed by The Horn Book Guide and The Childhood Education Journal. His first book was published in 2006 by Simon and Schuster, titled Cowboy Ned and Andy. His artwork appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, and the American Illustrator. He drew pictures and worked on his passion of illustrating and writing books on the side while he had jobs ranging from a window display artist, puppeteer and puppet builder, to an interior and set design illustrator. He majored in editorial illustration and took a course in Children's Book Writing, where he fell in love with and decided to pursue a career in children’s picture books.

Stein attended the Parsons School of Design in Manhattan for college. Seuss, Richard Scarry, Ezra Jack Keats, Leo Leonni, Maurice Sendak (especially the Little Bear books), James Marshall, Jose Aruego, William Steig, Ludwig Bemelmans, and Bill Watterson. Some of the authors and illustrators that influenced him as a child were Dr. He even began to make up stories of his own. Evident from his fondness for drawing, Stein had a wild imagination that he loved to follow and escape into. He enjoyed daydreaming and listening to the many stories that his parents and grand-parents would read to him. His love for drawing started when he would doodle on post-it notes that his mother left around the house. David Ezra Stein was born in Brooklyn, NY.

Ezra stein