Sabuda grew up in the small rural town of Pinckney in southeastern Michigan. Every night his mother would read a story to Robert and his siblings before they went to bed. Reading was very important and promoted at every opportunity.
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Sabuda's father was a mason and a carpenter, so he believes he learned the ability to work creatively with his hands through watching his father. His mother had a local dancing school where he first experienced the art of visual storytelling and creating scenery and backdrops for the recitals. At school his teachers allowed him to create their bulletin boards because they knew how much he loved art. That was the first time he discovered that paper could be used for more than just drawing and painting on. He covered the bulletin boards with cut paper collages. At home he started to fold and glue paper together to make little model houses and eventually books of all sizes filled with simple stories and happy pictures.
A trip to the dentist introduced him to pop-up books, which he found in a basket in the waiting room. When he opened them up, he was shocked and delighted when something leapt right off the page. Shortly after that, his mother brought home some old, manila filing folders from work, and they were the perfect material for making pop-ups. He learned to make them by carefully examining pop-up books given to him as gifts.
After graduating from high school, he attended Pratt Institute in New York City to study art. During his junior year he did an internship at Dial Books for Young Readers where he learned everything about how a children's book is created. Another part of his job was handling the mail, and he was exposed to original artwork from the likes of Barbara Cooney, Thomas Locker, and James Marshall, which inspired him to become a children's book illustrator.
Today Sabuda lives and works in New York City. His studio is about two blocks away from his house where he works with children's book creator Matthew Reinhart. He says, "We love making books. It's hard work, but the best part is not having to worry about making a mess. When being an artist is your job, you can make as many messes as you want to!"
From Robert Sabuda's website: http://www.robertsabuda.com/