We didn’t set out to make books.
We set out to fix the morning.

For months, the worst part of every day was getting our son to read his school reader. The little zip folder would come out and the stress would land in my chest before he’d even opened the page. Head down. Sounding out a story about nothing for no one. I’d finish drop-off already wrung out.

Then one afternoon at school pickup, a mum I barely knew leaned in and actually whispered it: the readers are SO BORING. Her kid was the quiet sensible type. The kind who does what he’s told. He hated them too. It wasn’t just us.

That night I started sketching. I’m a designer. I spend my days making things for other brands and I’d been quietly desperate to make something of my own. I sat up brainstorming characters until late. Made one page. Propped it on the iPad in his bedroom for him to find in the morning.