Author Jennifer Pahl Otto is a poet and storyteller who grew up in a house where every room, hallway and staircase was lined from floor to ceiling with books. Her love of story began there as a child, most especially listening to her mother read Winnie the Pooh - again and again. Ever since, Jennifer has never stopped reading or loving children's literature. Jennifer creates magical, whimsical stories for adults and children. She travels widely in response to the many invitations she receives to share her stories. Illustrator Kseniia Korniienko is a Ukraine native whose imaginative sketches and watercolors regularly appear in exhibitions and at charity events. At the core of Kseniia's hundreds of watercolors and thousands of sketches is the clear goal of helping provide people with moments of joy in a too-often dismissive, problematic world. Heart and a soul are everywhere evident in the work, hinting not only of the world as seen by the artist, but of new interpretations of that world, interpretations that clearly transform the everyday into something rather unexpected, something in fact extraordinary. Not waiting for the appearance of some ''Mystic Muse, '' Kseniia makes a daily habit of sitting down at her drawing board and just getting to work: "The Muse comes during the work." Unfailingly cheerful, Kseniia's work inspires positive, constructive intentions in viewers, clearly inspiring them to go out in the world and do something newer and better. Translator Jin Yonglin was born in Shanghai. Initially making his way with a high school education, he spent some years at farming, then in the construction corps of the People's Liberation Army, where he began a professionally adventurous life - building houses, making bricks, working as a woodcutter and a miner. Also, he worked in river reclamation, as a wine maker, as an agent in a grain warehouse, and as a teacher. Eventually, Yonglin did get to attend university, but was not able to finish since it was time to return to city life from the countryside. He supported himself by working at various tasks in a refrigeration factory (including chef and bank teller) while attending evening university courses. This led to his new career: middle school teaching of English. In these days, Yonglin falls in love with Taichi, making new friends, translating books into and out of Chinese.
