Jack Makhlouf

Jack's Millie the Octopus stories were born from a real first hand experience with an inquisitive baby octopus Jack met in the tidal pools of Waikiki Beach in Oahu while on a family vacation when he was 10 years old. This audacious little creature captivated Jack; she was strong and wanted to stay out of the water even when he put her back in. Naming the octopus Millie, Jack later drew her up in his charcoal sketchpad accompanied the sketches with short, wishful, adventure stories using the imagination of a young boy. As an adult, Jack uncovered his old sketchpad when moving and began to re-write the stories with plenty of prompts and questions for kids to answer directly from Millie. With the help of Leslie's artistic touch in her illustrations, the journey began to bring Millie's eight (8) inspirational and adventuresome stories to life for kids big and small who dare to dream.