Meet the BraveMouse crew

Molly Coxe

Molly wrote the story, created the characters, and designed the mouse-size sets for our first book, Benjamin and Bumper to the Rescue. She has written and illustrated many children’s books, including Big Egg , Cat Traps , R is for Radish, Six Sticks, and Hot Dog (Random House); Fox Trot and Bookworm (Golden Books); Whose Footprints? (Thomas Y. Crowell); and The Great Snake Escape (HarperCollins).

Her books have been selected for the Children’s Book of the Month Club, featured in a Scott Foresman Addison Wesley reading program textbook, and published in many foreign-language editions. They have garnered many glowing reviews, won an International Reading Association Children’s Choice award, and sold more than a million copies. She lives and works on an island north of Seattle, Washington. A few of Molly’s favorite childhood books: Robert the Rose Horse (by Joan Heilbroner, illustrated by P.D. Eastman), Nobody Listens to Andrew (by Elizabeth Guilfoile, illustrated by Mary Stevens), Winnie the Pooh (by A.A. Milne, illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard), Bread and Jam for Frances (by Russell Hoban, illustrated by Lillian Hoban).

Olivier Toppin

Olivier is a French photographer who lives in Provence. He specializes in lighting effects that create a magical feeling inside his photos. His work has appeared in magazines, books, advertisements, and galleries. He took the photos for Benjamin and Bumper to the Rescue (and most of the photos that appear on this website). A few of Olivier’s favorite childhood books: Twenty-thousand Leagues under the Sea (Jules Verne), Marvel Comics (especially series featuring the X-Men and Iron Man, co-created by Stan Lee).

Kate Basart

Kate Basart runs a publication design studio called Union Page Works in Seattle. She designed the cover for Benjamin and Bumper to the Rescue , laid out the interior pages, and did the prepress work. Her son Miller loves picture books, but now he is reading mostly chapter books like the Redwall series, by Brain Jacques.

Antoinette Botsford

Antoinette Botsford, storyteller, narrated the the full-length video of Benjamin and Bumper to the Rescue . She especially enjoyed Sir Pouncelot’s culinary achievements and his conversion to vegetarian eating and is eager to find out will happen to Benjamin and his friends in future books. “There is nothing I like better than a good story, especially if it has a brave mouse in it.”

Cedric Lafaye & Florian Bayer

Cedric and Florian engineered and constructed many of the miniature sets for Benjamin and Bumper to the Rescue . Both of them live in the South of France, where they work as Jacques of all trades, and masters of several.