Our Team

Authors

Alejandro Tobon Amaya | Latin Legends

Culturally curious from an early age, Alejandro believes that cross-cultural connection is a powerful force that can foster mutual understanding, compassion, and empathy despite differences. Education, particularly through reading and storytelling, is an excellent tool that allows cultures to come into contact while aiding and promoting students’ learning, personal development, and intellectual curiosity.

Cullen Diehl | Zodiac

Cullen is a teacher and author who views the pursuit of new knowledge and skill growth as a lifelong journey that is meant to be shared with others. Cullen believes that when time and effort are combined with quality learning resources, all students have the potential to become their best selves.

Toby Johnson  |  Aesop’s Fables, etc.

Toby has been sharing his love of reading and writing with students from diverse backgrounds for over a decade. As a student and teacher of languages, he values the role stories play in enhancing fluency, comprehension, and retention. Toby believes kids learn more attentively when they read fun, appropriately-leveled stories.

Alexandra Sieh | Family Fun

As both a language teacher and language student, Alexandra Sieh sees immense value in learning to read as books truly are a portal to different worlds and windows into different cultures. She believes that children most want to read when they feel they can do so successfully. Building reading skills naturally with clear progression will allow children to take pride in their increased reading abilities.

Jim Sojourner | Zodiac

As a professional educator and historian, Jim knows that reading and writing are the foundations to both professional success and personal fulfillment. Jim believes that love for literacy starts as a child, and that the best way to help students learn to be expert readers is through stories that are engaging, challenging, and focused on developing key skills.

Andrew Yarchin | Life’s Lessons

Andrew believes that reading is our gateway to the world–especially true of the Digital Age, where a majority of the internet’s content is in English.  He thinks that getting an early start is helpful, as developing reading foundation early in life equips children for success all the way through adulthood.

Illustrators

Debasmita Dasgupta | Indian Riddles

Debasmita is an internationally published and award-winning illustrator & graphic novelist based in the UK working with different publishers across the globe. As an art-for-change advocate, she tells stories of changemakers from around the world partnering with global non-profits.

Hao | Chinese Myths

Hao is a powerful yet discreet artist and we are grateful for his most meaningful contributions. He is credited with the concept of the Chinese myths series and has made numerous contributions .

Andrea Henao | Latin Legends

Andrea is an illustrator based in Medellín and has been illustrating in editorial projects, social media, news papers, among other creative work. She strives to concentrate multi-layered meaning into one image.

Erik Lundorf | Family Fun, Animal Pals

Erik is an illustrator and cartoonist based in Indianapolis, whose artist career has evolved over the years to focus on illustrative work. He has collaborated extensively with schools creating educational content, as well as participated in freelance projects including restaurant murals and custom bio comics.

Jiemin Yang | Zodiac

Jiemin is a graphic designer, illustrator, and dance artist based in New York City. He has created illustration works for clients from non-profits, digital publications, education, and business. He enjoys creation and storytelling through different media.

Andrew Yarchin | Life’s Lessons

Andrew believes that reading is our gateway to the world–especially true of the Digital Age, where a majority of the internet’s content is in English.  He thinks that getting an early start is helpful, as developing reading foundation early in life equips children for success all the way through adulthood.

Xiaojin Zhu | Aesop’s Fables

Xiaojin, currently in New York, is an artist who is passionate about exploring the mystique of light. She believes that light is the foundation of the visual world and that colors in a drawing are beautiful because they are another form of light.