Picture books · Ages 4–8
The ordinary is thewhole point.
The We Books are warm, funny picture books about five kids on one block learning the ordinary skills of a good life, each their own way, while a small dog named Churro runs a secret plan in the margins.
We Cook
Five kids are making dinner on the block.
Amara hums. Mateo wobbles. Kenji watches closely. Priya has ideas. Sam notices what everyone else misses.
And Churro has found the snacks.
Six more books are written and waiting their turn. Each one takes a single ordinary skill, patience, letting go, gentle care, fixing what breaks, and lets the kids find their own way through it.
Five kids. One dog. Every book, everybody.
Amara
Steady and sure, the one who hums while everyone else hurries.
Mateo
All momentum and heart, usually wearing a bandage, usually near Churro.
Kenji
Glasses on, notebook out. He sees how things work before anyone asks.
Priya
Ten ideas a minute, and at least one of them is exactly right.
Sam
Bucket hat, full pockets. Sam notices what everyone else misses.
Churro
One flopped ear, one wagging tail, and always a small scheme in the background.
Books that look like the block
The kids of The We Books come from different families, cultures, and traditions because real blocks do. Amara, Mateo, Kenji, Priya, and Sam are not a lesson in diversity. They are neighbors.
Culture shows up in these books the way it shows up in real life: in the food on the stove, the words a grandparent uses, the way one home celebrates and another one rests. It is never the plot and never a costume. It is the world the kids live in, drawn with care and drawn correctly.
No kid is the only one. No kid stands in for a whole people. Every kid gets to be the funny one, the careful one, the brave one, and the one who gets it wrong and tries again.
Every kid can. Every family belongs. And every book ends together.
Lessons that fit in one line
- Waiting is part of cooking.
- Letting go is part of tidying.
- Mistakes can become art.
- Gentle is part of caring.
- Places hold stories.
- Fixed is better than new.
Short enough for bedtime. Sturdy enough for the two-hundredth read.
From the maker
The We Books were written by Bear Wade, a Telly Award winning documentary filmmaker, author, brand builder, and dad in St. Louis, Missouri. After 23 years of telling other people's stories, this series is the one he's telling for the kids on his own block.
In a world of fast-paced children's entertainment, Bear believes childhood should still make room for the ordinary: cooking dinner, tidying a room, hearing where your family comes from. Kids don't need to be entertained through daily life. They need to be invited into it, working alongside their adults.
The books are written for two of the toughest audiences in publishing: kids whose attention wanders, and parents on the two-hundredth read.
Want to be a test-read family?
Book one is finished and looking for its first listeners. If you have a kid between 4 and 8 and twenty minutes at bedtime, we'd love your honest reaction — the giggles, the wiggles, and the parts where attention wandered.