About Julia
Author
Julia Cook is nationally recognized as an award-winning children’s book author and parenting expert, and her books have been referenced in such publications as Parent’s Magazine, The New Yorker, Green Child Magazine, The Huffington Post, The Chicago Tribune, Yahoo.com, DrLaura.com and BabyZone.com has. She has also been featured on CNN’s HLN News, and several large metropolitan networks.
Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Julia became actively involved in teaching children how to ski, an experience that led to a love of teaching in general. Julia now lives in Fremont, Nebraska. Her Master’s degree is in Elementary School Counseling. While serving as a guidance counselor, Julia often used children’s books to enhance her classroom lessons.
She has presented in thousands of schools across the country and abroad, regularly speaks at national education and counseling conferences. She has published nearly 100 children’s books with a wide range of characters and social development topics. Her books showcase her innate ability to enter the worldview of a children who can then use her storybooks to grow. Julia gives children both the “what to say” and the “how to say it.”
The goal behind Cook’s work is to actively involve young people in fun, memorable stories and teach them to become lifelong problem solvers. Inspiration for her books comes from working with children and carefully listening to counselors, parents, and teachers, in order to stay on top of needs in the classroom and at home.
In her spare time, Julia enjoys spending time with her husband, family, and puppies. Visit her online at JuliaCookOnline.com
About Greg
Illustrator
Greg Shriber is an award-winning cartoonist, illustrator, and graphic designer with over 25 years of experience turning ideas into amazing images.
When he's not creating art, Greg is a technology entrepreneur who has started and grown some of the legal industry's most successful software companies—now there's a twist. In fact, two of his companies were named Serengeti and Safari (notice a pattern)—where he incorporated wildlife imagery into his memorable marketing campaigns.
Most importantly, as the father of four boys he’s spent countless hours writing and spinning fantastical, mysterious, and swashbuckling bedtime stories.
About Justin
Storyteller
Justin Shriber is a well-known podcaster and gifted writer who has been sharing amazing stories with audiances for years.
Together with his brother Greg, he is part of the book-making super-team known as “The Writer Brothers.” Their first story "Schnauzer's Trousers: The Spotlight Isn't for Everyone" was inspired by a nickname for one of Justin’s daughters and a pair of plaid pants that Greg loved to wear while growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Our Story
The W. Hog Way
One rainy afternoon in the city of Seattle, an independent publishing company decided to open up shop. They chose the name "W. Hog"—not because their books would be written mostly for farmers—but because the founder's children were named William, Henry, Owen and Graham.
And so this group of friends started on their journey to create truly magical reading experiences. They chose stories that helped big readers connect with little listeners, and filled them with wit and wonder (as well as enough animals to fill a zoo).
Their first book was a hit: A story about a quiet dog who unexpectedly becomes famous, only to realize the spotlight isn't all it's barked up to be. The team was ecstatic! But they quickly realized they had a problem: they didn't have enough books to meet demand... So they quickly hatched a plan.
They started a city-wide drive to recycle old dot journals. And wouldn't you know it—99% of them were completely empty (except for the owner's name on the inside cover). Now with a virtually endless supply of books they just needed to figure how to get their stories onto the pages.
At first they tried selling the blank books as "Invisible Ink Editions". But after only three sales and three returns, they gave up on that idea.
Then they tried writing out the story by hand (with a wordy description of the pictures). But kids didn't want to read a novel, they wanted to see the pictures. So they gave up on that idea too.
Finally, they went back to the old way of doing things and created a new line of books that were so popular, people forget all about the dot journal fiasco.
The team still looks back on those early days with fondness. They may not have been the best at coming up with ways to save on printing, but they sure knew how to make kids smile. And that, they decided, would be the W. Hog way.