Mare and the whispering forest of words

Mare and the whispering forest of words

Sometimes everything suddenly feels overwhelming. A glance from a girl in class. A note from the teacher. Your birthday, and someone who doesn't want to come to your party. Or thoughts that just keep going when you really want to sleep.

Mare is ten years old and knows that feeling all too well. Sometimes it feels like there's a washing machine in her stomach, her cheeks get warm, or thoughts tumble through her head. During a perfectly ordinary school year, she discovers something special: emotions like sadness, anger, fear, tension, shame, joy, love, and pride can be felt in your body. A knot in your stomach, warm cheeks, a pounding heart, tears welling up in your eyes, or that light, tingling feeling when you're happy.

In Mare and the whispering forest of words, children follow Mare through relatable moments from her daily life. Moments about friendship and insecurity, wanting to belong, disappointment, courage, and love, and about the little things that can suddenly make a day feel very big.

Slowly, Mare learns to recognize her body's signals and discovers what her body is trying to tell her. Because when you better understand what you're feeling, you can also discover what you need in that moment.

Finding peace takes time, safety, and gentle practice. But Mare and the whispering forest of words doesn't explain that to the child reading it. Mare experiences it. She plants her feet firmly on the ground, breathes slowly, and feels what it's like to be seen by the people, her friend and the dog, who love her. One ordinary moment at a time.

Beneath those everyday moments lies a carefully woven layer of emotions, physical cues, safety, and resilience. But for the child, it remains above all a story: about a girl trying to understand what she's feeling, a shy new puppy, and a friend who sticks around.

And Mare discovers something else important. Peace isn't something she has to create from scratch. Sometimes that peace is already there, somewhere beneath the busy thoughts and intense feelings, waiting for enough safety and space to be felt again.

The story invites children to learn to better recognize and understand their own emotions and feelings, not by telling them what they "should" feel, but by discovering alongside Mare that all feelings are valid and that you can often do more with what you feel than you think.

A warm and hopeful story for children who feel deeply, think a lot, or sometimes need a little extra support to reconnect with themselves.

And also for the adults around them. The book comes with a fully included companion booklet for parents and caregivers. In accessible language, it explains what Mare is experiencing in each chapter and provides starting points for further conversations about feelings, thoughts, and what's happening in the body.

Join Mare on her journey into the whispering forest. Along the way, you might discover not only something about her, but also something about yourself.