About Us
- Rylee Hayes, Author -
Rylee Lou Hayes was born and raised in the small town of Bolivar, Missouri. After graduating high school, she moved halfway across the country to attend college in North Carolina. There, she met and fell in love with her husband, Brian, as well as her new home. She graduated in 2015 from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a Profession in Deafness degree concentrating on American Sign Language interpreting. Following graduation, Rylee worked in an elementary school as an educational interpreter for three years. During her time working with Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, she felt particularly passionate about the power of storytelling. Interpreting stories for her students daily deepened and expanded her love for children’s literature.
Rylee became a stay-at-home mom upon the birth of her oldest son in 2018. It is his love of snowmen and all things snow that prompted her first book, The World’s Biggest Snowman!. Since its publishing, Rylee has established an early literacy program which she facilitates weekly using her own curriculum. She has written numerous original poems and songs to help bring stories to life and foster a love of reading at a young age.
Now a mother of three, Rylee is constantly inspired by her children’s creativity and zest for life. The World’s Brightest Jack O’ Lantern! is written in honor of all three of them and the magic they bring to the Halloween season each year.
- Landon Kemp, Illustrator -
Landon Kemp is the kind of guy who has never lost his love of cartoons and believes that no one can or should "grow out of" them. Suffice it to say, he is a die-hard fan of animation, comics, entertainment art, and pop culture in general, who tends to approach life with a sense of curiosity and a wilder sense of humor and imagination. As a cartoonist, illustrator, writer and aspiring animator/storyboarder on the Autism/Asperger's spectrum, he spent four years in Texas, most of it in Austin; and he is currently living in Missouri, while continuing his studies in animation and cartoon art.
On top of his admiration for the art of animation, Landon believes that picture books and graphic novels have the power to help children learn to read and to grow in appreciating visual art and storytelling. He has illustrated three picture books as well as a chapter book, and his previous book, The World's Biggest Snowman!, was also written by his sister, Rylee. They serve as a way to share his love of story and art with his nephews and nieces, and he hopes this new book will be a nice addition to that collection.