Art Manno was born in Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, New York, in a true working-class neighborhood. From the earliest days, Art dreamed of a life in the arts. As a young man Art could often be found sketching from window displays at Manhattan’s Museum of Natural History.

Art studied Commercial Art at Art Career School and the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and then worked as an Art Director at some of New York’s top advertising agencies. Art moved to Virginia and worked for 15 years at the Christian Broadcasting Network, where he developed Bumbino.

One day, Art was assigned a project encouraging employees to select a co-worker for an award; he and a colleague came up with a “worker-bee” concept. “One day, I was looking at my wall where the Bumbino illustration was hanging, and I believe God put on my heart to create a children’s book. Growing up, I had always loved Walt Disney. I drew all of his characters whenever I could. I always dreamed of creating my very own character, and it finally happened.”

Art wrote his first book, “Bumbino” about accepting differences in each other. His second book is about Bumbino’s experience with grief after the death of his best friend.