Amaris Crouch-Nowoisky

Amaris Crouch-Nowoisky was born in Los Angeles, California. She grew up with a deep interest in watching movies, writing short stories, and drawing. Most evenings growing up, she attended film screenings with her mom and sister. Being exposed to so many movies at such a young age gave her insight into how stories unfold and how characters become three-dimensional. After graduating from UC Santa Barbara, with a Bachelor's in Film Studies, Amaris began working for the Academy of Motion Pictures at the Margaret Herrick Library. Five years later, she shifted her career to becoming an ESL teacher. This enabled her to build a career in Germany as an English language teacher where she taught children, university students, and business professionals as an in-house trainer for five years. She loved to use film, media, and stories to teach her lesson. Along with her teaching, she did her graduate study and got her Master's in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Amaris always wanted to be an author, but it seemed the demands of work and raising a child always took priority. When her son Lukas was around one year old, she was inspired by his excitement about numbers, shapes, the alphabet, and art. He couldn't articulate full sentences then, but he could recite everything about the topics he loved. At 3 years old, Lukas fell in love with astronomy and he has continued his discussion of it with every chance he has. With Lukas' combination of being precocious and energetic, his enthusiasm has prompted his mom to "bottle up" and preserve some of his precious interests as a little boy. Amaris and Lukas created the series Lukas' Favorite Things to share his interest, inspire creativity, and teach. A Kid's Introduction to Our Solar System begins the series with Lukas sharing his passion for space through his artwork.