Life after Willow ❤️ Refreshed home. Refreshed education hub. Refreshed blog.
- Reeta Dhar
- Feb 10
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 10
I don't think I have felt as excited about the start of another year. Admittedly, I had a little cry on my first day back at the desk, when it finally sunk in that it was time to say goodbye to my little Willow; that sweet, stubborn, little wise ass has been more real to me these past six years than most other things in the 'real' world.
It was an apt time to recall Fox's counsel to Willow in The Gift. Handing him a flower she had said —
"Hold onto this lightly,
My dear little friend,
Relish its beauty,
Even though it will end.
And when that time comes,
Let it gently part,
Knowing that forever,
It will live in your heart."
The time had come to move onto other things that were also close to my heart. They are so close in fact, that Darren and I have been doing little else since we came back from our Christmas camping trip. It had been ten hour days, seven days a week for us — and we are still a few months out from revealing anything.
In the course of all this work, the website is getting a spruce up. There are a new few noteworthy updates I wanted to share:
Refreshed Willow the Wonderer homepage
We have a refreshed Willow the Wonderer homepage now. This includes short snippets of each book and a clear articulation of our philosophy towards learning: Adopting a story-first approach.
My personal critique of a lot of children's books in the wellbeing, emotional intelligence and mindfulness type genre is that they are too "preachy" ...
Most are in fact textbooks masquerading as storybooks. In spite of the good intentions and messages in these books, I personally find them to be a tedious read, so can only imagine how it lands with a 3 year old.
One of the explicit goals I had set myself with the Willow the Wonderer series was to avoid doing this at all cost ie don't write preachy books!
Whatever lesson had to be imparted would need to be through the medium of a great story — one that very naturally engages the attention and imagination of our readers, young and old. The said lesson would be woven so tightly within the fabric of the narrative that it would feel seamless.
This is what I mean by a story-first approach (and hope I have lived up to the task)!
The book summaries also articulate the wisdom as well as more formal learning outcomes encompassed within each book. Hopefully this makes the purchasing decision easier for all our book buyers.
Refreshed Schools & Educators page
It has been wonderful to see Willow the Wonderer books being purchased by hundreds of teachers across the country who are using it in classrooms.
They no doubt already know this, but the series beautifully aligns to the Australian curriculum, both for early learning and primary school education. In addition to supporting literacy outcomes, the series support learning outcomes around Personal and Social Capability or Social-Emotional Learning (SEL).
We have updated our 'Schools and Educators' site with the overall (as per above) and book-by-book curriculum map.
From all the feedback we have received from educators we can confidently say that Willow the Wonderer is uniquely effective in the classroom. This is because it utilises the story-first approach that invites inquiry and discovery, rather than preaching themes to children.
We hope the curriculum mapping assists teachers and educators in Foundation (Prep/Kindy) through Year 2 to use these books to address Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), Literacy, and STEM outcomes.
This site also has additional resources and teaching guides that all educators can refer to or reference for facilitating deeper discussions around the themes in each book.
If you are a teacher and have any feedback on this site or request for additional resources that would be helpful when using these books in class, please feel free to get in touch (wiseasstories@gmail.com). We'd love to get your input.
One final reminder, we offer bulk discounts to school so get in touch if interested in purchasing/using these book, even if it is for a school fundraiser.
Refreshed Blog
Our blog has also benefited from a facelift. We have over a hundred blogs now so it was time to organise it all. These are now clearly laid out in four categories:
Featured Blogs: These are our recommended reads for our Wise As community. The blogs here go into philosophy behind the work we do, as well as share feedback from customers and stories from the community about Willow the Wonderer.
Our Modern Fable: These blogs delve deeper into the wisdom we have referenced when developing the Willow the Wonderer series. It's great for those who have read the books and felt a yearning to understand more about the background — or have difficult question coming from their little ones that they still need to address ...
Applied Wisdom: This is for the benefit of our adult readers. In this series of blogs I share the very real challenges we face living and working in our tumultuous world. I talk about how the lessons in our books apply and share practical tips and advice to put the wisdom into practice. These are good articles for those who wonder how the wisdom in our books would apply in the real world situations.
FAQs: There are so many kids books out there ... Choosing one amongst tens of millions is quite the task. We address the common questions and concerns parents, teachers and grandparents have in this section, sharing our perspective and book recommendations.
There's a lot more stuff cooking up in the kitchen ... Stay tuned as we gear up to expand our offering in the months ahead :)
Don't forget to make the most of our Paperback Sale!
(Ends February 28th)
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