Kiku Adatto

Kiku Adatto was born in Yokohama, Japan, and grew up in the United States and Europe with her parents, brother and sisters. Every night her father, an immigrant from Turkey, told stories that blended East and West. She continued this tradition, and Babayan grew out of the bedtime stories she told her two sons when they were young. With Babayan and the Magic Star she seeks to revive the oral storytelling tradition by encouraging children to interpret, retell and continue the story in their own voice and adapt it to their local cultures and traditions. She hopes to inspire children to see storytelling as part of discovering and transforming the world. An award-winning teacher at Harvard University, Kiku is a noted author, scholar and commentator on art, popular culture and civic life. She is married to political philosopher Michael Sandel.