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.
