(1953–)

Richard Platt is the author of more than sixty informative books for young readers, and he also writes for innovative multimedia projects. Some of his most popular works have been collaborations with illustrator Stephen Biesty on the Cross-Sections series. After a failed attempt to forge a career as a photographer, Platt discovered that he had a knack for writing. I started writing about photography: first magazine articles, then books, he explained on the Walker Books Web site. I got a job editing childrens books, then went on to write them.

In the 1990s, Platt teamed up with popular juvenile illustrator Biesty for several books, beginning with Stephen Biestys Incredible Cross-Sections Book, published in 1992. The following year, a second volume in the series, Stephen Biestys Cross-Sections Man-of-War, proved equally interesting for late-elementary-age readers, especially those enchanted by seventeenth-century battleships. Alongside Biestys cutaway illustrations, Platt provides explanatory text that indicates the purpose and activities in each section of the ship. The hardships of life aboard such vessels for their often 800-member crews are not overlooked, either, and the drawings depict food rations crawling with maggots and a doctors pail containing severed limbs. Ellen Mandel, writing for Booklist, asserted that Platts intriguing text serves to make this meticulously presented book a treasure of factual content and visual imagery.

For Stephen Biestys Incredible Everything, Platt provides informative paragraphs to accompany the illustrations for many everyday products, such as athletic shoes and compact discs. Much of the text revolves around the manufacturing process. Stephen Biestys Incredible Body is a lesson in human anatomy, with sections on each of the bodys systems and several major organs; the digestive system alone takes up four pages. Platt has also worked with the illustrator on Stephen Biestys Cross-Sections Castle and