Krull was born in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, in 1952 and grew up in Wilmette, Illinois.

[1] She graduated from the girls' preparatory Regina Dominican High School in Wilmette, studied music at Northwestern University, and then earned a B.A.

in 1974 from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, magna cum laude, majoring in English, minoring in music.

[2] She moved to San Diego to work as a senior editor at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, editing authors including Tomie dePaola, Eve Bunting, Patricia Hermes, Anne Lindbergh, Jane Yolen, Arnold Adoff, Amy Schwartz, Judy Delton, and Lael Littke.

[6] Krull lived in San Diego with her husband, Paul Brewer, a children’s book illustrator and author whom she married in 1989.