Gutsy Books
Stories for Grounded Kids and their Adults
Books for living in a real body.
When we are young, we rely on grownups to navigate our world for us. Grown ups kept us safe, but we also all craved an accurate understanding of the world. Books are a safe space to explore fear, courage, loss, and all the hard things that make us human.
I started Gutsy Books because I didn't see any publishing house focused on supporting children's need for exploration and experimentation.
Knowledge Through Direct Experience
Developing a Lifelong Passion
Exploring Fear Safely
When I was a kid, my favorite books were the ones that unnerved me a little. Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark or Roald Dahl’s The Witches gave me a window to the world that grown ups usually keep from kids.
“What I remember most clearly was that the experience I craved from reading these books was the felt experience — the chills running up my spine or the drop in my stomach. I didn’t know it at the time, but what I wanted was a safe environment to explore the way my body responded to emotions.”
When the real world felt scary or confusing, books felt like a portal to another realm where I was in control of my emotions and how they affected my mind and my body.
Gutsy Books is a safe space for bold stories, in an era of complete insulation from friction. We make tactile, grounded books that steady the vagus nerve and give children permission to feel reality on reality's terms: from fear and doubt to wild curiosity and honest ambition.
Mommy Loves You
Before exploring fear or ambition, every child needs a floor that holds.
A bedtime promise of permanence
When we are apart, love is not an accident that fades with time. It is a permanent knot of light pressed directly into the currents of the water, the earth beneath your feet, the fire in the night, and the stars.
Printed with staple / saddle stitch binding so panoramic spreads open completely flat in a child's lap.
Hands-on with Mommy Loves You
“When we can't be in each other's arms, we touch each other through the water, the earth, and the wind. The fire, the stars, and the end of time.”
Forthcoming Projects
Allowing space for feelings children 'aren't supposed to have'.
Disappoint Me
“Disappoint me. Please disappoint me. Please disappoint me so I can show you that it's safe here.”
A radical rupture of the expected child-parent compliance theater. Proving the floor holds by dropping dead weight onto it without breaking.
Something to Someone
“I don't want to be everything to everyone. But I don't want to be nothing to no one either. I want to be a double cheeseburger on a blue paper plate.”
A meandering celebration of quirks and specific identity, ending with a mirror on the final page turn.
Community & Direct Inquiries
Gutsy Books welcomes inquiries from independent booksellers, educators, local reading spaces, and kindred spirits.