Milo has a yellow jacket, a teddy bear and plenty of questions. In his stories, he learns to brush his teeth, visits the doctor and tries football for the first time.
I wrote Milo’s stories around situations that are familiar to parents of young children. As a father, I know those everyday moments too. An adventure doesn’t have to begin far from home: sometimes it starts with a question and the chance to look for an answer together.
A teddy to take along
Teddy is Milo’s favourite old toy, with a stitched ear and a place in every story.
When Milo doesn’t want to brush his teeth, he starts by showing Teddy how to do it. At the doctor’s office, Teddy is the first patient: Milo listens to his heartbeat before the doctor examines Milo himself.
A room full of familiar things
At home there’s a toy box with a sun on it, a mushroom lamp and a blanket covered in stars. One evening, though, Milo notices something unfamiliar: a large shadow on his bedroom wall.
He looks more closely and discovers that the shadow belongs to his yellow jacket. When Mum comes in, she shows him how to make a rabbit shadow with her fingers by the lamp.
I wanted the grown-ups in Milo’s stories to be present along the way, not just at the end. Mum and Dad listen to his questions and share the new places he discovers.
From the aquarium to preschool
In one story, Milo takes a train with his parents to an aquarium. A shoal of little fish moves like a silver river, and a ray glides above the glass tunnel. Milo looks up, and the teddy in his arms looks up too.
In another, he’s getting ready for his first day at preschool. He asks whether there will be toys and whether his parents will stay. Once he’s there, he watches other children building a house from blocks. Later he adds a red block to the side. It’s a window, he tells them.
One story takes Milo on a journey; the other begins with an ordinary morning. Both have details you can stop and notice together: a teddy peeking from a backpack or a little red window in a block house.
A world made to look touchable
Milo’s stories have the feel of a little toy world: you can see the stitches on Teddy, the soft texture of clothes and the rounded shapes of everyday objects. I wanted the pictures to offer something to look at beyond the action on the page.
Today Milo is investigating a shadow. Tomorrow he might be on a train. More often than not, his teddy is there too.