Fantastic Folklore for Kids

Frank Lesser has been fascinated by monsters since he was a child growing up in a very non-monstrous suburb of Columbus, Ohio (though Goosebumps author R. L. Stine once lived just down the street, so maybe it wasn’t entirely ordinary). As a kid, he dreamed of spotting Bigfoot delivering the mail or snapping a photo of Nessie in the local pool. Most people grow out of these fantasies, but as a writer, he got to imagine them for a living. One day he discovered something more remarkable than a mermaid: how to make people laugh. So he moved to New York and wrote Emmy-winning late-night comedy for The Colbert Report. He later returned to his love of monsters, creating Sad Monsters: Growling on the Outside, Crying on the Inside and the animated series You’re Not a Monster, and even spending time with Bigfoot-hunters in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. These days, he can often be found in a Brooklyn coffee shop, searching for the magic words to bring a golem to life—or at least make a reader laugh.

Charli Vince is a queer illustrator and writer based in Norwich, UK, who has a love for folklore, the natural world, bright color, and all things unusual. Charli can normally be found in her studio, with her dog asleep on the sofa, or in her favorite coffee shops.