Meet Kate Savushkina, the creator of the hipposnails. She's the inventor of the world and characters, the writer and the illustrator. Kate is an artist and designer. She used to be a poet and composer too. She worked as an editor and author in glossy magazines until she quit and switched to painting. Currently, Kate is fully engaged in painting and drawing.

I've been fond of snails since childhood. Of course, like many, I dreamed of a kitten or a puppy, but I was not allowed to have any of those. However, I could pick up snails at our country house and I would keep them at home in an aquarium. They multiplied all the time, and, in general, lived happily ever after. One day I had the idea of ​​an ideal being that would be a synthesis of my two favourite animals: snails and hippos.

At first I just made drawings of them, but then my son started asking me to tell him stories about them. So the idea of a book appeared and soon I found my co-author - Jane. Snails still live in my house, but now I also have a cat, a dog, a crow and an owl. Each of them has their own story worth of a separate book. You can read more about them on my Facebook. It's a pity that you can't keep a hippo in a Moscow apartment.

Meet Jane Pronina, the co-author of Ai's Adventures.

I still like to read fairy tales. And recently I decided to start writing them myself. When Kate and I first started talking about the book, I thought it would be just a couple of stories no more than a page long. And then suddenly I realized that a whole world was growing in my hands, with mountains, lakes, seas and islands. It's full of different animals, plants, and characters, of course.

By the way, I managed to see some of the places of our magic world in my real life travels. Like a pink beach on the island of Komodo or purple trees in California. Real magic surrounds us every day, we just need to learn to see it.

I suggested to my mum the idea of writing a book about the creatures she draws. So she and Jane (Pronina) wrote it. Some of my ideas were included in the book. For example, the little forest dragons and the trip to Pon-Pon island.

I like all these creatures, the hipposnails and the others, very much. I would love it if somebody made a full-length animation film about them.