Donald Crews (born August 30, 1938) is an American illustrator and writer of children's picture books.
Raised in Newark, Crews spent summers at his grandparents' home in rural Cottondale, Florida, with his mother and three siblings.
While at Cooper Union, Crews met his future wife, graphic artist Ann Jonas.
A recurring motif in Crews' work is transportation, seen in books Freight Train (1978), Truck (1980), Harbor (1982), School Bus (1984), and Flying (1986).
[3] Crews said that Bigmama's originated "from telling the story to [his] nieces and nephews and discussing it with [his] siblings and [his] parents".
An additional motivation for Crews' autobiographical stories is "the fact that there aren't very many books about Black families and their lives".