Bounyang Wuttisakdy was born in the small, remote village of Muangtaeng, a long boat ride from anywhere. His parents were farmers; the village had no road, no electricity, no water, and no school. A few years after he was born the family relocated to a village where he and his brother Siphone (who has been a vital part of Big Brother Mouse since before we even started) could go to school. As a child he liked playing football and other games. One favorite was The Snakes Tail. Each child holds the shirt of the person in front of them, to make a long snake. The person in front tries to grab the "tail" of the last one.

Most children in Laos do not continue school after grade five, but Bounyang decided to move to Luang Prabang where he could go to high school. "I thought I could learn more, and meet people from many backgrounds in a larger city," he says.

Today Bounyang works part-time at Big Brother Mouse as he finishes college. In his spare time he likes to cook, especially such traditional Lao dishes as orlam and bamboo curry; and to read. He's currently reading Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl ... for the third time! because "I want to be sure I understand it all."

"I always smile and feel happy when I see children reading books," he says. The first of several books he produced for Big Brother Mouse was Let's Eat. He found eye-catching photos on Wikipedia that showed animals eating, gulping, gnawing, and grazing. Each page of the book shows one photograph, plus a single verb in both Lao and English, plus a sentence using that word, also in both Lao and English. This book may be translated, adapted, and published by others; click here to download.. He also, with great enthusiasm, is learning about database programming, and already helps maintain the database we use for Big Brother Mouse record-keeping.