Reported by the Age and SMH Darren Pryce with his Archibald 100 entry, The Meeting (Photo credit: Simon Cardwell) Darren Pryce, co-founder of Wise As Stories , is an award-winning illustrator and an innovative artist. His latest contribution to the artscape in Australia is a neo-classical portrait of Brittany Higgins for the Archibald Prize, now in it's 100th year. ​ Darren's motivation for painting Brittany Higgins was to give voice to women who have been silenced by the pat

When Darren and I started working on our first picture book, Willow the Wonderer , we did not have any aspirations to start our own publishing company ... Our 'COVID project' had begun simply with a shared desire to 'create stories we wish we'd grown up with'. What sort of stories? 'Beautiful stories that plant a seed of wisdom.' As we near the launch of our debut picture book, we share a retrospective on the five ingredients that make for great 'wise as' stories. 1. Wisdom f

My answer is not going to win me any high-browed critical acclaim and it doesn't matter. This one is straight from the inner-child's heart. My pick would be 'The Enchanted Wood' by Enid Blyton. The Enchanted Woods The Enchanted Wood is one of the first 'big books' I remember reading at the tender age of about eight. It sparked my imagination and made me yearn for a magical new world like nothing had done before. The story is built around the adventures of three little kids

Fables are found in every culture around the world and goes as far back as the collective human memory serves. Most if not all of us have at least heard of one growing up. Remember the Hare and the Tortoise - 'slow and steady wins the race' ? What I never imagined was that one day, with the publication of my first picture book, Willow the Wonderer, I would become a modern-day 'fabulist'! So what are fables? The short definition that comes up from a google search - "a short st

Reported by Channel Seven News 2020 was already a year full of twists and turns and for children's books author and co-founder of Wise As Stories , Reeta Dhar, but life had a few more curveballs to serve. ​ What started as a mild cough whilst she was working on her first picture book, Willow the Wonderer , became a fixture in her life towards the end of 2020, impacting her speech. ​ A series of diagnostics and consultations later doctors confirmed she had a growth in her left

I am currently on the first ‘gap year’ of my life. It has turned out to be quite ‘the gap’ as thanks to COVID, I’ve had to shelve all my plans as it all involved travel! I started to work on other projects close to my heart instead. Most days I find myself happily self-employed in these but from time-to-time I feel a sense of utter restlessness and discontent set in. It is during one such ‘episode’ that I penned this article, in real-time, as I worked through my restless mind

When we first decided to started working on Willow the Wonderer, it felt utterly natural to us to write it in verse. In fact the premise of the whole story had come into Darren's mind decades ago in the form of a rhyme: Willow the wonderer Woke up one day Wondering about happiness And where it lay. But to bring this to the world, we soon realised we'd need to start our own children's publishing company. Here's the backstory. When we first began to write our first picture book

The parent and child relationship is as primordial as it gets. It's one that shapes and influences our lives right to the very end and like every other relationship, it has its ups and downs - remember your teens? It's also not uncommon for many to have fraught relationships with their parents right into adulthood, and at some level harbour resentment and blame for where we find ourselves in life and the 'lack' that we may feel. The truth that we all realise at some stage i

Amazon has long been hailed as the saviour for self-publishing authors, providing access to not only a huge marketplace to sell books but also to a complete range of publishing, printing and logistics services. It was only when we delved into the 'economics' of it all that it felt more akin to daylight robbery ... As we worked through the plans for launching our first book, Willow the Wonderer, it became obvious to us that ignoring the conventional wisdom on the internet was

Another International Women’s Day (IWD) has come and gone. IWDs have always felt bitter-sweet to me. It’s nice that we carve out one day out of 365 to call out and recognise women in all our glory. But part of me wants to live in a world where this sort of ‘campaign’ was not needed — certainly not for a group that makes up 50% of the world’s population... There is no doubt that we have come a long way but it’s 2021. In this day and age why is it that women continue to lag beh