David Shannon was born in Washington D.C., but he spent his childhood in Spokane, Washington. Shannon knew that he enjoyed art and reading from the time that he was a small child, but he took a particular liking to movies and especially the villains in these movies. When Shannon spoke to Sonia Bolle in an interview, he said, "I loved ''Oliver Twist'', but I liked the Artful Dodger more than Oliver. And I always thought the villains in Disney Movies were really cool."  Shannon describes himself as a happy person and not a troublemaker, but he says that this fondness for villains made him realize as a child that "you need both sides for a good story." This was when Shannon first began coming up with stories in his head and transcribing them.

As Shannon grew older, he began to realize what his career aspirations were.  As a student in high school, he decided early on that he wanted to have a career in an art field, but he didn't know what kind of artist the he wanted to be. Shannon was not a painter then, but he knew that he enjoyed making his own illustrations to books that he was reading in high school, which prompted him to consider being a comic book artist. Shannon says, however, that it "never occurred to me that I could illustrate books," so he attended art school at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and decided to focus on learning about political illustrations. In 1983, Shannon moved to New York City and began working for various magazines and newspapers, and two of his major jobs were for the ''New York Times'' and the ''Book Review''. These jobs opened Shannon up to the world, and because of ''New York Times''' national distribution, Shannon's work was seen by thousands of people. His first book was illustrating ''How Many Spots Does a Leopard Have?'' (1989) by Julius Lester.  After this book he was introduced to a variety of illustrating positions, which started his career in children's book illustrations.

After Shannon had been illustrating books for a while, he was encouraged to write his own book. For his first book, Shannon decided to write a book about baseball, because it was a topic that he already knew well.  This book was entitled, ''How Georgie Radbourn Saved Baseball'' (1994), where Shannon was able to incorporate his dark painting style, which came from his love of villains, with a story about baseball. This book got Shannon interested in writing, and he has continued writing books ever since, and has decided to focus primarily on children's books.
Shannon's arguably most famous masterpiece came with the book entitled ''No, David!'' (1998). After Shannon had been writing children's books for several years, his mother found a book that he made when he was five years old and sent it to him. This book consisted entirely of the words "no" and "David" because Shannon said that these "were the only words I knew how to spell at that time."  Because of this, Shannon decided to make an actual book out of this where he retold the story of a mischievous child named David, naturally, based on himself, whose mother is always telling him 'no' because he is constantly jumping on the bed, banging pots and pans, and playing baseball where he is not supposed to.  But she reassures him at the end when she finally says, "Yes, David, I love you." In addition, Shannon wanted to keep this book realistic, so he decided to keep the illustrations as close to the original ones as possible.  As a result, Shannon said, "So that's how I found out what, deep down, I knew all along. I love storytelling. And I'm really lucky that I get to do it for a living."  According to a review of this book, "Readers won't be able to resist taking a walk on the wild side with this little rascal, and may only secretly acknowledge how much of him they recognize in themselves."  ''No, David!'' (1998) was named a Caldecott Honor Book in 1999.
Shannon followed ''No, David! '' (1998) up with ''David Goes to School'' (1999) and ''David Gets in Trouble'' (2002). In ''David Goes to School'' (1999), Shannon introduces David to the reader in a school setting. The book goes through all of the normal things that occur at school, continuing with the same "no" phrase, but instead of David's mother saying "no" all of the time, it is the teacher who is saying "no".  In Shannon's latest book in the series, ''David Gets in Trouble'' (2002), David is back and up to his old tricks, but this time he has expanded his vocabulary and tries to give his mother every excuse you can think of for all of his bad actions.  For instance, David gives such excuses as "I forgot," "it was an accident," and "it wasn't me". In addition to the previous books, this book was also reviewed and recommended by Adele Greenlee, who said that, "Children who enjoyed ''No, David!'' (1998) and ''David Goes to School'' (1999) will welcome this lighthearted sequel."
Another popular book by David Shannon is ''The Rain Came Down'' (2000), when a summer shower that is unexpected causes great chaos in a small neighborhood. This huge shower causes a line of temper tantrums, but when the clouds suddenly break, all of the sour moods go away.  In a review on this book, the author says, "Shannon expertly uses vertiginous angles as he builds suspense, then calms things down with a set of subdued portraits and a view of a quiet afternoon picnic."

Shannon's books are usually well reviewed. Among the many awards Shannon has received are the following: ''How Georgie Radbourn Saved Baseball'' (1994) was on the New York Times list as one of the Ten Best Illustrated Books of 1994; ''No, David!'' (1998) was named as a Caldecott Honor Book, an ALA Notable Children's Book, a Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon title, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, and was on the New York Times Best Illustrated Book list; ''The Rain Came Down'' (2000) was awarded the Golden Kite Award; and ''How I Became a Pirate'' (2003) received the Booksense Best Picture Book.

Shannon currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter. After being a part of the book world for so long, Shannon has begun to take on a variety of projects. One project that he is working on is the screenplay for ''Georgie Radbourn'', that Dream Works pictures is making for a live-action film. In addition, Shannon's theatrical agent is working on having David made into a television series. Shannon has also expressed that he may want to collaborate with his wife one day, who is an actress and voiceover (for ''Rugrats''). As a result, whether or not these projects are accomplished, David Shannon will always be known as one of the most accomplished writers and illustrators of children's books.