About the Authors

Akshay Gobalakrishna

Akshay was born in New York, then moved to Los Angeles when he was 5, moved to Dallas at age 8, and to Hong Kong at age 9, where he lives with his dog, Matcha, his mom, dad, and sister, Nandhika. He is the founder of the International People's Cultural Club at THS, and he also has created a weather service for the school. He likes airplanes and has over 50 model planes (plus an airport diorama).

Chiara Shih

Chiara Shih is a twelve-year-old girl who currently attends Middle School at THS. She has written multiple novellas for the LEAP blog and she currently does journalism. If Chiara could be described, people would probably say curious, snarky, and driven. Chiara enjoys creative writing and has a soft spot for dystopian fiction. Her top five book series in no particular order would probably be The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Heroes of Olympus (and the multiple other Riordanverse books) by Rick Riordan, His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman, and the Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart. Chiara’s random and ever-changing interests currently include reading, mythology, marine biology, and being part of the THS stage crew. She also enjoys procrastinating and avoiding deadlines until they stare at her in the face.

Crystal Guo

Crystal lives in Hong Kong and goes to The Harbour School. This is her third year writing in LEAP, and she doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. Her favorite genres are fantasy, Historical fiction, and Horror. In her free time, she enjoys reading, writing, swimming, and playing with her cat.

Debbie Lau

Debbie is 10 years old. She is currently in fifth grade and she loves to eat and watch shows on Netflix. Her favorite school subject is art! She likes comics and novels. The books she reads most are her favourite comics, Garfield, and her favorite book series, The Thea Sisters.

Ella Choe

Ella is currently an eighth grade student at The Harbour School. She has lived in Hong Kong for all of her life and has been enrolled in the LEAP program since 2020. Recently, Ella has enjoyed writing opinion pieces about the school and investigative journalism articles. Some of Ella's favorite things to do in her free time are reading books, watching TV shows, and playing with her dog, Rocky.

Hugo Earnshaw-Saran

Hugo is 9 years old and loves reading, writing, storytelling and acting. His favourite subject is Media Tech. Hugo wants to be a video game company founder and CEO in the future. Hugo loves to read about mythology, science-fiction and fantasy, but he also enjoys other genres, including mysteries! In his free time, he enjoys drawing using Procreate, playing video games and watching all sorts of movies and shows on Netflix.

Jack Zhang Runbai

Jack Zhang lives in Hong Kong and is 11 years old. He is part of The Harbour School and its Learning Extension program. He enjoys math, programming, and playing Minecraft. Jack can program in many different programming languages like Python and Swift. He started self-learning programming when he was in Grade 3. Jack's favorite part of Minecraft is building because he thinks it is a good way to express his imagination. He prefers Java Edition over Bedrock because of its great selection of mods that help spice up his builds. Jack is also part of the 22y23 Student Council - go and talk to him about it, he really likes to chat with people!

Jonathan Wang

Jonathan Junze Wang, 8 years old. The Harbour School G4. He is caring, loves reading, and is curious about everything. Sometimes he thinks like a philosopher who seems to already understand the laws of the universe. Sometimes he acts like a 3-year-old who drives his mum crazy with endless questions.. Either way he is, and always will be, deeply loved.

Jonathan Wong

Jonathan is 9 years old, and he loves reading fiction and playing video games. He enjoys his Media Tech lessons at school. He wants to become a video game programmer when he grows up. His favourite colour is blue. In his free time, you will find him relaxing at home, reading the most exciting titles.

Jeremy Yang

Jeremy is an eighth grade student at The Harbour School and he lives in Hong Kong. Jeremy is a keen writer and has previously published stories in both books and newspapers. Jeremy has thoroughly enjoyed writing his short story and can't wait to get started on the next one to add to his growing collection.

Julie Mok

Julie's family is originally from Japan. She is currently in seventh grade at The Harbour School. She likes dogs, sushi, and her family and friends. She dislikes arguments. In her free time, she reads books, draws, and watches TV. She enjoys drawing and reading the most. She loves all her subjects in school.

Miki Go

Miki Go is a 7th grader that attends The Harbour School in Hong Kong virtually. Her favorite colors are yellow, neon green, neon blue, hot pink, black, and white. She lives in the Philippines and is from a family of four (five including her cat). She likes eating, watching Netflix, and generally doing nothing in her free time. Even though she doesn’t really like school, she likes Social Studies and Literacy classes a lot.

Kerena Cheung

Kerena is in 9th grade and likes to read, play video games and sleep. Her favorite books include Hex Hall, The Hunger Games, and Harry Potter. She is described as ‘sassy’ and ‘annoying’ by her classmates, and prefers to stay indoors... because who wants to get a tan?

Kiran Esvaran

Kiran is in Grade 7. He has published five projects for LEAP, and is currently working on a non-LEAP illustrated novel about a land full of feathered, elegant dino-like creatures and many other self-created species all in danger due to a certain evil force. He likes playing tag and imagination games outside with his friends, running around, writing stories, creating characters, hiking, snorkelling, biking, reading, drawing and gaming. His favorite animals are monitor lizards, small feathered dinosaurs such as Troodon and Velociraptor, and geckos. His favorite books are the Wings Of Fire series and his favorite dragon species in those books are the LeafWings and SilkWings. He prefers books with non-human characters, especially reptilian ones.

Maverick Lau

Maverick is a boy in third grade at The Harbour School. He is 8 years old and he likes to play video games. His favorite book is Dog Man. His favorite sports are soccer and basketball. He loves watching Marvel on the TV.

Nathalie Ho

Nathalie is a girl in seventh grade. She enjoys reading and creative writing. She has a little sister who studies at Victoria Shanghai Academy. Nathalie plays tennis and loves swimming, and has an unstoppable appetite for candy and chips.

Nayantara Sinha

Nayantara is nine years old and she loves books like Percy Jackson and Harry Potter. She wants to be a video game maker and coder. Her favorite subjects are Media Tech and Library. She likes ice cream and chocolate and best of all, she likes writing.

Nichole Shah

Nicole is 12 years old and is currently in seventh grade. She lives in Hong Kong and goes to the Harbour School. This is her first time participating in the LEAP programme. Apart from writing, she also enjoys drawing, painting and listening to music in her free time.

Rhys Ng

Rhys Ng is from Hong Kong. He is 11 years old and is in 7th grade at The Harbour School. He has a little brother called Ryn, who also studies in THS. Rhys is gifted in Maths and really enjoys doing Calculus. In his spare time, he likes to hike and swim but doesn’t like playing soccer that much. He is passionate about the study of medicine, which is what inspired him to write his persuasive piece about COVID vaccinations. If you would like to ask him anything, go to rng@theharbourschool.edu.hk or rng@ths.edu.hk.

Ryder Savio

Ryder is 12 years old and is in 7th grade, currently attending The Harbour School. Originally from the United States, Ryder has lived in Hong Kong for the past eight years and started her participation in LEAP in 5th grade at the age of 10. Her favorite subjects in school are Literacy, Science, and Social Studies, and she loves to write. Since joining LEAP, Ryder has written about in may different forms and genres, including fantasy and science fiction, journalism, and poetry. She is an inquisitive and innovative person and her work can be seen on The Black Dolphin Chronicle and The LEAP Blog.

Sameer Taher

Sameer is a boy in third grade at The Harbour School. He is 8 years old and in his spare time he enjoys reading. His favorite authors are; Dav Pilkey, Jeff Kinney, JK Rowling, and Roald Dahl!

Zahaan Bhappu

Zahaan is a ten year old boy who lives in Hong Kong. He was born in India. He lives with his mum and dad. He likes to read and play with Legos. He is in Grade 5. He goes to The Harbour School.

Rae Walters

Rae is eight years old and in Grade 3. She was born in Hong Kong then moved to Taiwan when she was six years old. After one year, her family moved back to Hong Kong and they have been there ever since. She lives with her mom and dad, and her dog, a 12-year-old samoyed named Pavlova.

Rae likes to read books about animals, like the book series Warriors. Warriors is about cats in different clans fighting each other She finds the names of the clans, like Wind and Fire, very interesting. She also likes books by Roald Dahl and David Walliams like The World's Worst Pets. In addition, she does a lot of sports like gymnastics, hiking, and horseback riding.