It began with a husband and wife, a love of language learning, and a passion for books. Robert and Rachel Noorda began Thunderstone Books in 2013 to meet the need for cultural and language education in an increasingly global and interconnected world. They first noticed the need for bilingual books in reaction to a rise in Chinese and Spanish immersion programs for children in their area. When Rachel and Robert moved to the UK for a few years while Rachel finished school, they met an equally strong interest in language education. Now they publish educational children’s books in areas such as language learning and science.
Rachel Noorda is currently working on a PhD in Publishing Studies at the University of Stirling in which she is researching the Scottish publishing industry and the connection between the Scottish diaspora and global markets for Scottish books. She is a beginning Mandarin Chinese and Scottish Gaelic speaker with a passion for languages and learning.
Robert Noorda has created Chinese language courses for Middlebury Interactive Languages and now works as a science teacher at Williamsburg Academy. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and has a bachelor’s degree in Chinese with a minor in Business from Brigham Young University—where he first met Rachel.
Will Strong has a bachelor’s degree in Illustration from Brigham Young University and has worked as a freelance artist for most of his career. He worked for Middlebury Interactive Languages to develop some of their language courses and provide illustrations for that, which is where he met co-founder of ThunderStone Books, Robert Noorda. With Will’s illustration and storytelling skills and Robert’s Chinese language skills, was born. You can learn more about Will’s artwork at .
Bennett is the illustrator of and More Picturing Chinese, two books to expose English speakers to Chinese characters. For the next two years, Bennett will be having an amazing adventure in Montreal, Canada, but we are excited to work with him again upon his return.
Deborah Malcolm is an illustrator from Livingston, Scotland who focuses on character design and visual narrative to create wordless stories. She has a First Class Honours Degree in Computer Arts from Abertay University in Dundee, Scotland. She loves cats (which make an appearance in her first picture book), alpacas and Pokemon. Her wordless picture book about depression, Meh, will be available in August 2015.
Brooke Arnold has a love for science and a love for stories. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Computer Science and she enjoys sharing her love of science with others, especially young science enthusiasts. Brooke lives in Utah, USA. Look out for her stellar science middle grade book coming October 2015 called Elements of Evil about a young girl’s quest to use chemistry to become a supervillain.
Christopher Preece hails from the foothills of Appalachia in Pilgrim, KY. He has an extensive background in chemistry with a B.S. from Morehead State University and many graduate chemistry credits from the University of Kentucky, where he will be continuing his education to obtain a Ph.D. in Science Education. He has been teaching high school chemistry for the past 5 years. He enjoys reading comic books, traveling, eating, and all things science – especially physical science – and applying those concepts in different ways to educate others. His graphic novel about chemistry and superpowers, Chemystery, will be released in March 2017.