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Krauss was a graduate of the Parson School of Design. She was a member of the Writers' Laboratory at the Bank Street College of Education in New York during the 1940s. Ruth Krauss married children's book author Crockett Johnson in 1941. They collaborated on many books, among them The Carrot Seed, How to Make an Earthquake, Is This You? and The Happy Egg.

Maurice Sendak characterized Krauss as "a giant" in the world of children's literature.

"Prior to the commercialization of children's books, there was Ruth Krauss."

(A) indicates books of theatrical poems for primarily an adult audience.

• A Good Man and His Good Wife, illus. by Ad Reinhardt (1944); re-illus. by Marc Simont (1962).
• The Carrot Seed, illus. by Crockett Johnson (1945)
• The Great Duffy, illus. by Mischa Richter (1946)
• The Growing Story, illus. by Phyllis Rowand (1947)
• Bears, illus. by Phyllis Rowand (1948); re-illus. by Maurice Sendak (2005)
• The Happy Day, illus. by Marc Simont (1949). (Caldecott Honor book 1950)
• The Big World and the Little House, illus. by Marc Simont (1949).
• The Backward Day, illus. by Marc Simont (1950)
• I Can Fly, illus. by Mary Blair (1950)
• The Bundle Book, illus. by Helen Stone (1951)
• A First Book of First Definitions, illus. by Maurice Sendak (1952)
• A Very Special House, illus. by Maurice Sendak (1953). (Caldecott Honor book 1954)
• I'll Be You and You Be Me, illus. by Maurice Sendak (1954)
• How To Make An Earthquake, illus. by Crockett Johnson (1954)
• Charlotte and the White Horse, illus. by Maurice Sendak (1955)
• Is This You? by Krauss and Crockett Johnson (1955)
• I Want to Paint My Bathroom Blue, illus. by Maurice Sendak (1956)
• Monkey Day, illus. by Phyllis Rowand (1957)
• The Birthday Party, illus. by Maurice Sendak (1957)
• Somebody Else's Nut Tree, and Other Tales from Children, illus. by Maurice Sendak (1958)
• A Moon or a Button: A Collection of First Picture Ideas, illus. by Remy Charlip (1959
• Open House for Butterflies, illus. by Maurice Sendak (1960)
• Mama, I Wish I Was Snow; Child You'd Be Very Cold, illus. by Ellen Raskin (1962)
• A Bouquet of Littles, illus. Jane Flora (1963
• Eyes, Nose, Fingers, Toes, illus. by Elizabeth Schneider (1964)
• The Cantilever Rainbow (A)', illus. by Antonio Frasconi (1965)
• What a Fine Day for ..., illus. Remy Charlip; music by Al Carmines (1967)
• The Happy Egg, illus. by Crockett Johnson (1967)
• This Thumbprint: Words and Thumbprints (1967)
• The Little King, the Little Queen, the Little Monster and Other Stories You Can Make Up Yourself (1968
• There's A Little Ambiguity Among the Bluebells and Other Theater Poems (A) (1968
• If Only (1969)
• I Write It, illus. by Mary Chalmers (1970)
• Under Twenty (1970)
• Everything Under a Mushroom, illus. by Margot Tomes (1973)
• This Breast Gothic (A) (1973)
• Love and the Invention of Punctuation (1973)
• Little Boat Lighter Than a Cork, illus. by Ester Gilman (1976)
• Under Thirteen (1976)
• When I Walk I Change the Earth (1978)
• Somebody Spilled the Sky, illus. by Eleanor Hazard (1979)
• Minnestrone (1981)
• Re-examination of Freedom (1981)
• Love Poems for Children (1986)
• Big and Little, illus. by Mary Szilagyi (1987)