Wise As Stories
Beautiful stories with seeds of wisdom and knowledge
These are stories we wish we'd grown up with
" Wisdom Begins in Wonder "
Socrates
Willow the Wonderer
Introducing an 'unlikely hero'
" Beautiful and wise stories that a generation will remember "
Willow the Wonderer
Reeta Dhar & Darren Pryce
Willow the wonderer
Woke up one day
Wondering about happiness
And where it lay...
Willow the Wonderer is our bestselling children's picture book series. Featuring enchanting tales and beautiful illustrations, it introduces children to the wonders and wisdom of life while helping them to develop critical skills like literacy, numeracy, mindfulness and emotional intelligence.
Willow the Wonderer has attracted perfect five star ratings from readers since first released in 2021 and developed a legion of following. The fifth and final book in the series will be published in 2025.
Publishing with Purpose
Stories of wonder, wisdom & joy
About Us
Wise As Stories is an independent publishing house co-founded by Australian author, Reeta Dhar, and internationally acclaimed illustrator, Darren Pryce.
The stories we grow up with -- Matter. They leave an indelible impression on our psyche and go on to shape our hopes and dreams, aspirations and goals, and even worldview.
We are creating stories that we wish we'd grown up with -- beautiful stories that plant seeds of wisdom and knowledge. Our hope is that these seeds blossom with time and help our young readers navigate the vicissitudes of their future life.
But mostly, we hope to creates stories that our readers - young and old - simply fall in love with.
Australian Creatives
Creating stories about wisdom and knowledge
Reeta Dhar
Debut Author
Reeta grew up surrounded by stories; tales from the olden days her grannies used to tell, scary stories that her siblings would share, legends about ancient yogis her dad read aloud, Bollywood films her mum rented and stories from all the glorious books she read.
Stories became her doorway into a world of imagination that enthralled, enticed and enchanted in equal measure. They inspired her to travel, climb mountains, do yoga, meditate and seek out the magic in life.
Prior to pursuing her love of writing and publishing, Reeta has had an accomplished business career. In Willow the Wonderer picture book series, she brings together her love of rhyme and the natural world with life's little lessons she has learnt along the way.
Darren Pryce
Acclaimed Illustrator
Darren started drawing before he started walking, or so the story goes. He was the quiet one in the family who spent all his time drawing at the kitchen table; his uncle was surprised to find out that he even had legs!
It was no surprise however that he pursued studies in design and a career as an illustrator, art director and contemporary artist. A classically trained painter with expertise in digital media, Darren seamlessly combines the two disciplines in his craft.
Darren has won many major national and international illustration awards, including Gold at the Melbourne Art Directors Awards and London International Award. Darren is a versatile illustrator and many different styles of his work have been featured in the Communication Arts Magazine, American Illustration Annuals and Leuzers Archive. His career highlights include doing the cover of Time Magazine and Los Angeles Times Magazine.
Darren draws upon his years of experience and love of the fine arts and nature to illustrate Willow the Wonderer picture book series, creating an innovative new style each time.
We care about Mother Earth
Our books are printed on sustainably sourced FSC certified paper.
We don't use single use plastics in our products.
We use recyclable or biodegradable materials for packaging.
“ Knowledge without wisdom is like a bag of books on the back of an ass ”