BONUS: Books Are Magic with John Sazaklis

The Zooquarium Podcast - Mike Bennett Studios

Author John Sezaklis shares his passion for animals, storytelling, and bookmaking in a bonus episode of The Zooquarium Podcast. He discusses his 'My Life as...' series, love for marine life, and creative influences like

Key takeaways

• Books educate through fun, playful formats

Transcript preview

This bonus episode features more from Mike and Chanel's conversation with author John Sezakless. Enjoy! Well this my life as a blank series you cover all sorts of animals and you know we're talking about the Renard Tree Frog today but I'd love to know some of your other favorites from that series because looking at the list it's it's pretty fun. Yeah there's eight books in the series so far two of them are actually not animals one is the life of the oak tree and one is the life of the dandel. The dandelionion book I wrote first it's the only one that rhymes I couldn't keep it up after the fish book so I apologize that so save that one for last but then out of the like I got them right here if I could just flip through of them there's the unicorn of the sea the narwhal I mean classic how awesome is that here's said dandelion I believe is World Ocean Day, so better get on that. The Monarch Butterfly. And like I mentioned before, the Great White and the Emperor Penguin. I think that's all like. Amazing. I have an almost two-year-old and we are definitely having our first dandelion summer or spring or whatever. Who knows what season it is. But it's become an obsession of hers and I really want to pick up this, my life as a dandelion book. I'd love to ask you as an author and an illustrator and a bookmaker. Where would you like us to buy books in 2026? What is the best thing for you as a maker? To be honest, you know your mom and pop book shops? What's a nice way of saying buying them secondhand? Yeah, of course. Is one way of supporting books that have been loved that have been purchased that have been paid for it and need another home, like an adoption agency, so to speak. Yeah. Yeah. You're not. You're not, you're not really, you're not really buying them. You're not really buying them. You're not really buying them. You're not really buying them online. You're not really buying them online. you know real bookstore out of business but you are getting them from someone who's loved them and is willing to give them a second chance so if you can get out and buy them great but then again if you want to support the the publisher themselves it is capstone at capstone pub.com they're in Minnesota and they've been I've worked with them for over a decade now and we're putting out a lot of fiction non-fiction animal adventures and as well as licensed characters too everybody. Yeah, you've worked on over 100 books. Yeah, I stopped counting after 100. I think that was a nice round number. I've been doing it. I mean, I've been drawing and writing since I was in kindergarten and that's been a long time. So that is such an incredible, incredible feed. Like, so blown away by that. Do you have a favorite? Am I allowed to ask that? You can. And I think it's topical. Well, no favorites. I mean, there's the first thought that I wrote that I wrote or like the one that I specialist or is it the ones where I get to sneak my friends and family inside? You know what I mean? You mentioned Ghostbusters. I grew up, that was my favorite movie and I got to write the Ghostbusters's little golden book. I also got to work on He-Man and She-R-L, I know. These things are 40 years old now and we're finally getting a chance to bring them back for the newer generation. But because it's like you mentioned, not a dandelion summer, but it's a Greek mythology summer, the Odyssey coming out. So when I had the opportunity to, I know this is, you'll see all my mythology books are back here or like my kids books.