Where children don’t have to rush to belong
A gentle children’s story world and book series exploring feelings, neurodivergent traits, and lived experiences — one animal, one story at a time.
What is The Wishing Barn?
The Wishing Barn is a gentle children’s story world created for neurodivergent children — and for anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed, misunderstood, or out of step with the world around them.
Through calm, emotionally safe storytelling, each book explores a single feeling, trait or experience through one animal at a time.
Rather than focusing on labels, The Wishing Barn begins with the child — creating stories that help children and the adults around them feel seen, understood and less alone.
It is a story world built on the belief that children’s needs deserve understanding, not judgment.
How The Wishing Barn works
Each Wishing Barn story begins with one animal and one experience.
Instead of trying to explain everything at once, each book gently explores a single feeling, trait, or way of experiencing the world.
That creates space for children to recognise themselves without feeling overwhelmed — and for adults to better understand what a child may be feeling beneath the surface.
Across the series, those small stories build into something bigger: a wider, gentler understanding of children, one story at a time.
Why families are drawn to The Wishing Barn
The Wishing Barn was created by parents of autistic children — growing from a simple, real need — a place where children could feel safe, understood, and not overwhelmed by the world around them.
It reflects something many families already know — that children don’t need to be fixed or explained, they need to be understood, in a space where they feel safe enough to be themselves.
A place where they are not defined by labels or behaviours — but gently met as they are.
Each story reflects that idea — giving children and adults around them — a simple, shared way to understand a feeling, a trait, or a moment that might otherwise feel too big.
This is what The Wishing Barn is built on.
Because every child deserves somewhere they don’t have to rush to belong.
We didn’t set out to build anything
We were trying to help our children make sense of the world - and make it a little kinder to live in.
Through Eva and David, we began to understand how overwhelming the world can feel, and how much difference it makes when a child feels safe, understood, and not rushed.
The Wishing Barn is where that understanding became something real.
Begin your journey with Socks the Sheep
Socks the Sheep Who Felt Everything is the first story in The Wishing Barn series - a gentle introduction to a world where feelings are understood, not fixed.
For the child who feels everything — and the adult learning how to help.
👉 A gentle place to begin
Stay connected to The Wishing Barn
The Wishing Barn is a story world built to grow — one animal, one trait, one story at a time.
If you’d like to follow along — new stories, early releases, and everything the Barn becomes — you can join us below.
Work With Us
The Wishing Barn is being built as a gentle story world with room to grow across books, educations, and beyond.
If you’re a publisher, agent, educator, media contact or potential collaborator, we’d love to hear from you!