Hugh Mungous and the Enormous First Name

Like a lot of parents whose kids can show you their ages using two hands or less, Matt Schaaf loves to find engaging and whimsical stories that can be read out loud, with or without the assistance of his son and daughter. Unlike most, his solution to not finding enough to keep them happy is to write his own. In this, the first of what may be an endless series – assuming his toughest critics remain enthused – he introduces a magical landscape full of unusual yet familiar characters given to free-verse wit, playful wisdom … and the occasional groaner of a dad joke. When he's not being photo-bombed by his busy kiddos, Matt works in software development and training for a leading producer of the programs that run e-learning classrooms, disappears into the more complex worlds of speculative science fiction and fantasy, and repurposes former trees into the imaginative structures (like two-story fire- truck and princess beds) chronicled in his popular "DIY Dad" YouTube videos. With his wife and a recently added rescue cat, he makes – and continually remakes – his home in a suburb of Minneapolis/St. Paul.