Meet the author

Kathrin Honesta.

Illustrator · Indonesia

Kathrin Honesta: Jakarta-based illustrator whose warm, folklore-attuned artwork brings myth-steeped fantasies like Sophie Anderson's The Girl Who Speaks Bear to life.

Kathrin Honesta is an illustrator based in Jakarta, Indonesia, who studied advertising and graphic design in Kuala Lumpur before focusing on storytelling and book work. She loves symbolism and visual metaphor, using layered, atmospheric imagery to add depth to the stories she illustrates, and has worked with publishers including HarperCollins, Nosy Crow, Usborne and Penguin Random House. Her illustrations light Sophie Anderson's The Girl Who Speaks Bear, a richly told fantasy drawn from Russian folklore in which twelve-year-old Yanka, found as a baby in a bear cave, sets out into the vast Snow Forest to learn the truth about who she is. Honesta's warm, folklore-attuned artwork suits stories about identity, belonging and the tales we inherit, making her a natural fit for immersive, myth-steeped middle-grade fantasy.