Stories that help children feel safe, seen, and understood!
​Life Tales is a trauma-aware children’s book series that reflects the real emotional worlds that children in foster care live every day.
Across five gentle, grounded stories, Life Tales follows children of different ages as they navigate anxiety, grief, separation, identity, and change. These are not stories about fixing feelings or rushing children to be brave. They are stories about emotional safety, connection, and being supported through hard moments.
Life Tales invites children to recognise themselves in the pages—and invites the adults around them to slow down, listen, and walk beside them.
Many children are carrying more than they can explain.
For many children, big feelings are part of daily life—worry that won’t settle, grief that lingers, family situations that feel complicated, or questions about where they belong.
Yet many of the resources available to them either soften these experiences too much, focus on behaviour instead of feelings, or expect children to cope before they feel safe. Adults often want to help, but aren’t always sure how to respond in ways that feel supportive rather than dismissive.
What’s missing isn’t more strategies.
It’s space for children to feel understood.
Why stories matter?
Children understand the world through story and play.
Stories allow children to see their experiences reflected without being singled out. They create shared language between children and adults. They make room for feelings to exist without needing to be solved.
When stories are written with emotional honesty, developmental awareness, and care, they offer something powerful: reassurance, recognition, and connection. Stories help children feel less alone—and help adults know how to stay present with what children are carrying
What Life Tales is?
Life Tales is a trauma-competent series of children’s books that centres emotional safety, attuned caregiving, and real childhood experiences.
Each story focuses on one child and one emotionally meaningful moment—whether that’s anxiety before a sleepover, adjusting to a new home, navigating complex family relationships, exploring identity and belonging, or learning to step away from a safe adult at a pace that feels manageable.
There is no fixing, no rushing, and no lesson forced at the end. Growth happens quietly, through safety, understanding, and connection.
The five Life Tales books form the foundation of everything that follows.
Our Mission
Our Values
Our mission is to create emotionally safe, trauma-aware stories that help children feel seen, understood, and supported—without minimising their experiences or rushing them toward resilience.
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Life Tales exists to give children language for their inner world and to support the adults who care for them to respond with confidence, calm, and connection.
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Emotional safety comes before skills.
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Every story prioritises reassurance, regulation, and relationship.
Real stories, respectfully told. -
Children’s lived experiences are honoured without labels, shame, or simplification.
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Connection over correction: Healing happens in relationship, not through quick fixes or behavioural focus.
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Developmentally true: Stories are written to meet children where they are—emotionally, cognitively, and relationally.
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Belonging and identity: Family, culture, and identity are treated with respect, strength, and care.
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Gentle growth: Children are allowed to move at their own pace.
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Growth is quiet, layered, and non-linear.
Beyond the books
The Life Tales books are just the beginning.
From the outset, Life Tales was designed as a broader ecosystem that supports children and the adults around them. The stories create shared emotional language that can extend into homes, classrooms, care settings, therapy spaces, and professional learning environments.
Future resources, merchandise, training, and webinars build on the same foundations found in the books—supporting everyday moments of connection, reassurance, and understanding.
An online community brings these ideas together, offering a space grounded in safety, reflection, and shared values.
Life Tales tells the stories children live—so connection comes first, and growth follows.