Meet the Authors
John Casselberry
Raised in Brooklyn, John was always immersed in a diverse and eclectic community of friends and culture.
Life as a young boy in Brooklyn, N.Y. in the late 60’s, early 70’s, was as challenging as it was enlightening. It was a volatile environment socially as well as a politically charged time in the history of this country.
Enlisting in the Marine Corps as a young man, served to further John’s global view of humanity and the concept of how we are all more alike than we are different.
John’s analytical nature led him to pursue the sciences in college. His innate wanderlust, unquenched, brought him to the SF/Oakland Bay Area where he discovered his passion for the performing arts and found a voice and vehicle for advocating social justice rooted in personal growth.
Being the father of three wonderful daughters, and subsequently interacting with the public school system, served as a stark reminder of the inaccurate representation of humanity and the mixed messages being presented to all children about the interdependent nature of the society and world in which they live.
Understanding that he needed to be the change he was looking for, John chose to combine his writing talents and world experiences with Madeline’s. Together they dared to attempt a ripple in the social consciousness, by talking directly to the children and their caregivers with this book series.
Madeline Connor
Madeline has a great love for writing, research, the healing arts, and living across cultures. She has a BA in Mass Communications from UC Berkeley and a post graduate Theater Arts degree from the Stanislavsky Institute in San Francisco. Her love for expression and the study of humanity took her on a journey to NYC to perform and work throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn in the performing arts.
She loved every minute of her NYC experience which can be summed up as a six year struggle and study of humanity with lots of laughs and beauty in every challenge she experienced.
An unforeseen event in the workplace, a chemical explosion, was a catalyst for change and seeking, that would lead her to a path of physical and spiritual healing.
Madeline’s recovery from this incident would guide her to many travels and years spent in the Far East studying medicine and Eastern philosophy in South Korea, where she worked in publishing on an English translation team and wrote for an international magazine.
Madeline traveled to South East Asia and Thailand for studies in the Healing Arts and immersion into South East Asia culture, where she became certified in Thai Massage and Mindfulness Meditation.
Madeline returned to her roots in the San Francisco/Bay area where she opened a Healing Center and married her husband. They are a bi-racial family and parents of twin girls. The girls subsequently inspired their book series of ethnically diverse protagonists as opposed to a book series about diversity. By the time the twins were five Madeline and and John found themselves struggling with finding books for their girls where they could see themselves reflected as Change Makers. This catapulted the creative duo into bringing all of their healing gifts and treasures to a much larger audience through their debut children’s book series, The Konscious Kidz.
In their first chapter book of the series, The Neighborhood, Madeline and John, co-creators and writers of the series, created a neighborhood based on the many urban areas throughout the world they have lived and experienced life through.
Madeline lives by the simple truth that ALL kids and people everywhere are the same. A global family, sharing the universal principle, that everyone wants to be loved, to love, and to belong, in community.
This is something Madeline has sought throughout her life. Courageous Adventures of the Konscious Kidz is a testimony of her seeking of community and community building.