Born on August 12, 1955, in Princeton, New Jersey, Ann M. Martin has always enjoyed writing. She’s the award-winning author behind book series such as The Baby-Sitters Club, Main Street, and Missy Piggle-Wiggle. The Baby-Sitters Club describes the adventures of five middle-school-aged friends who start a babysitting business. The series has 131 books in total and has sold over 176 million copies, making Martin a prolific writer. The first Baby-Sitters Club novel, titled Kristy’s Great Idea, was published in 1986, while the final special edition volume came out in 2000. Martin’s Baby-Sitters Club novels also inspired the 1995 movie adaptation of the same name.

Besides her series, some of her acclaimed standalone novels besides A Dog’s Life include With You and Without You (1999), Belle Teal, Rain Reign (2018), Here Today, and A Corner of the Universe (2002), which won the Newbery Honor Award in 2003. As of 2024, Martin was working on multiple projects, such as the fifth book in the Doll People series.

Martin is an avid animal lover, which perhaps inspired A Dog’s Life. Over the years, “she and her family had lots of animals, including hamsters, guinea pigs, mice, turtles, fish, and (always) cats” (184).