Mike Klaassen writes stories about young people facing daunting challenges. Each of his three novels, The Brute, Cracks, and Backlash: A War of 1812 Novel, has been awarded a B.R.A.G. Medallion.

Ongoing research encouraged Mike to write books about the craft of writing fiction. The use of folktales as examples in his nonfiction books led him to begin Klaassen's Classic Folktales, a collection of ancient stories retold as novellas.