Jaco Jacobs is the most popular and prolific children's book author in Afrikaans. He has published more than 170 books and more than a million copies of his books have been sold. Jaco is also a well-known columnist, freelance journalist and translator.

He grew up in a small South African town in the Karoo, one of the most arid parts of the world, and fell in love with books at a very young age. His writing career started at school, with his participation in numerous competitions for aspiring authors, and the publication of his first stories in magazines. His first children’s book, Pretpark, was written while he was still in school!

Most of his books are written and published in Afrikaans. A Good Day for Climbing Trees was his first book published internationally by Oneworld Publications in the UK, and in 2018, A Good Night for Shooting Zombies was released. This latter book was one of two novels by Jaco that were adapted into feature films and released in South Africa. Both these books were nominated for the Carnegie Medal, and A Good Day for Climbing Trees was also published in Italian.

Jaco lives in Bloemfontein, South Africa, with his wife Elize, daughters Mia and Emma, three dogs, a cat and a pet python.