Aroha's Way

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We first met Craig Phillips back in Plenty 13 just after he’d picked up a New Zealand Book Award for Giants, Trolls, Witches, Beasts: Ten Tales from the Deep Dark Woods. He followed that with the rollicking tale of a cat pirate, Jack Scratch, and we knew we were going to be hearing more from this avid illustrator. And voilà – he’s back, having teamed up with fellow Taupō local Bex Lipp to form the barnstorming publishing company Wildling Books, with a new publication on a much more serious topic that is already proving to be a best seller.

Nervousness, fear, and apprehension may not seem like typical topics for a children’s book, but they are certainly important ones. According to the Ministry of Health, 8%, or around 57,000 Kiwi kids, experience “significant” social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, and living with anxiety can sometimes go hand-inhand, or be a part of, these challenging experiences. As adults we know that anxiety can seemingly come from nowhere, and very few of us really know how to address it.

Research shows that early intervention with kids can reduce the risk or severity of certain types of mental health issues in later childhood, adolescence or adulthood, and it can also improve children’s developmental, emotional, academic and social outcomes.

Those are pretty big topics for a kid’s book, but Aroha’s Way, created by Craig and Bex and published by their Wildling Books imprint hits those nails squarely on the head, but in a way kids can not only understand but willingly consume. It is a beguilingly beautiful book that takes readers on a young girl’s journey through four emotions associated with anxiety – nervousness, fear, worrying thoughts and apprehension – and provides simple, but effective ways to help manage them.

We hope the book helps children before their often everyday emotions and worries spiral into something more serious.

In June this year, 2,000 copies hit the shelves – and sold out within three weeks. The second print run of 4,000 went the same way. It is now into its third print run, and it may sell out again, with hundreds of copies already swallowed up by waiting lists. In the New Zealand publishing landscape this is a phenomenal response – and clearly shows both the need for Aroha’s Way and the exceptional skill of its creators.

“It’s amazing to see how Aroha’s Way is connecting with children, parents and educators around New Zealand,” says Craig, “and helping in the conversation about childhood anxiety.” And Bex Lipp is, naturally, delighted with the success of the book she and Craig created and that it is working to empower New Zealand tamariki.

“We’ve had feedback from parents who say their children are now ‘breathing like Aroha” Bex says. “Even kids with selective mutism - anxiety so severe the children can’t speak - have been recognising themselves and opening up conversations around their feelings. But the book is for all children, as we all experience these emotions, and by normalising anxiety, we hope the book helps children before their often everyday emotions and worries spiral into something more serious.”

This is why Bex, who has openly shared her own story about being diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, along with experiences of clinical depression, anxiety, self-harm and several suicide attempts, wanted to produce the book - to help kids before they have to go through what she did.

“Aroha’s Way is the book I wish I had,” she says. “I had very big emotions as a kid, many of which I didn’t know how to control. That’s what led me towards a crisis. Thankfully, I learned to rewire my brain, and to think differently, so I wasn’t drowning in my negative thoughts. I wanted to help kids understand that process as early as possible.”

Taupō locals Craig Phillips and Bex Lipp

Bex says although the book is recommended for five to 10 year olds, some parents have been reading it to children as young as two and three, and she has been receiving feedback that even teenagers and parents alike are benefiting from the book.

Given the runaway success of Aroha’s Way, you’d imagine bookshops would have been queuing up to get it into their stores. And you’d be wrong.

“We initially had feedback that the book didn’t read well,” Bex says, “which was so gutting, but we believed in the book and knew we would just have to get enough people asking for it to be picked up by the bigger players.”

“Craig and I were really excited to start Wildling Books last year, as it allows us full creative freedom to publish exactly the way we want. Whilst Craig’s background has been within the publishing industry via illustration, my background is in social media marketing. I have driven demand for ‘Aroha’s Way’ via Facebook posts and advertising. This is quite a different approach to standard publishing, but has seen the book hit the bestsellers list and have bookshops looking to stock the book due to demand from their customers.

Pages from the book Aroha's Way

“I think our business is working so well because we don’t follow the traditional path. Our business name ‘Wildling Books’ really is a reflection of how we run our business and how we live our life. We are ‘wildlings’, having gone against traditional ways and instead living a lifestyle that works for us. We play to our strengths as well as motivating and encouraging each other. This absolutely carries through to our publishing business as we find ‘flow’ in our work. We have very different strengths, which when combined, match so well within the business. I have always been an ideas person. So I pass on my ideas to Craig and he then transforms them into something quite amazing.”

Nervousness, fear, and apprehension may not seem like typical topics for a children’s book, but they are certainly important ones.

It’s a business model that is quite new to the traditional publishing world, but which is now looking increasingly like its future. We are driving sales via social media channels.

“We are now receiving manuscripts daily from other writers,” Bex says, “as well as people wanting to know how they can self-publish. It’s really hard to say, no but we are still just a new business and are not looking to take on anyone else at present due to the amount of ideas and books we are working on ourselves! It seems that everyone has a book in them, but getting that picked up by a publisher is the difficult part. Being able to self-publish is becoming easier and easier, but when you get to the point of having your work published you then have to market and sell those books - which is often where it can get really difficult.”

To see just what ideas and books the dynamic duo are working on, get on over to www.wildlingbooks.com

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