Where children don’t have to rush to belong
A gentle children’s book series helping children understand 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 children who feel overwhelmed, misunderstood, sensitive, different, or out of step with the world around them.
Each book explores one feeling, trait or experience through one animal at a time, making big ideas easier for children to understand.
Rather than beginning with 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 built on one simple belief:
Children’s needs deserve understanding, not judgment.
For Parents and Schools
The Wishing Barn was created by Cat and David Dennis to help children understand themselves and each other through gentle animal stories.
Our books turn feelings, traits and behaviours into child-friendly stories, making big ideas easier to understand without shame or judgement.
Book One, Socks the Sheep Who Felt Everything, introduces Socks, a little sheep who feels the world very deeply. Socks helps children explore what it can feel like when the world is too loud, too bright, too scratchy, too busy, or simply too much.
The story can support children who experience sensory overwhelm, big feelings, anxiety, shutdowns, masking, routine struggles, communication differences or feeling misunderstood.
It can also help siblings, classmates, parents, carers, teachers and schools talk about difference, empathy and emotional understanding in a gentle way.
Sometimes children understand stories before they understand explanations.
Through Socks and the other animals of The Wishing Barn, children can begin to say:
“That’s me.”
Or:
“That’s my friend.”
And little by little, understanding can grow.
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 gives children space to recognise themselves without feeling overwhelmed, and gives adults a clearer way to understand what may be happening beneath the surface.
Across the series, those small stories build into something bigger: a wider, kinder 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, shaped by a real family need: to create stories 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.
They need to be understood.
Each story offers a gentle, shared way for children, parents, carers, and educators to understand a feeling, a trait, or a moment that might otherwise feel too big.
At its heart, The Wishing Barn is about meeting children where they are — and creating stories where they do not have to rush to belong.
Why We Created The Wishing Barn
We created The Wishing Barn from our own family experience, after seeing how overwhelming the world can feel for children who are sensitive, misunderstood, or expected to keep up with a pace that does not fit them.
Through Eva and David, we came to understand how much difference it makes when a child feels safe, understood, and not rushed.
The Wishing Barn grew from that understanding — into a gentle story world where children can feel safe, seen, and understood.
Start with Book One: Socks the Sheep Who Felt Everything
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.
Socks is a little sheep who feels everything deeply: sounds, lights, scratchy clothes, busy rooms, sudden changes and the too-muchness of the world.
Through Socks, children can begin to understand sensory overwhelm in a safe, story-led way.
A calm, emotionally safe starting point for children who feel everything deeply — and for the adults learning alongside them.
A gentle first step into The Wishing Barn.
Socks Resource Pack
A gentle printable pack for children who feel the world deeply. This resource helps children explore sensory overwhelm — what it can feel like when the world is too loud, too bright, too scratchy, too busy, or simply too much.
The pack includes gentle discussion prompts, a feelings check-in, calm corner ideas, a “What helps Socks feel calm?” worksheet and a colouring page.
It can be used at home, in classrooms, calm corners, SEN spaces, PSHE, wellbeing sessions or alongside Socks the Sheep Who Felt Everything.
Children do not need to have read the book to use the activities.
Available now on TES
Stay connected to The Wishing Barn
The Wishing Barn is a growing story world of gentle books, new characters, and future possibilities.
Join us for free printables, new animal reveals, early story updates, behind-the-scenes moments and gentle resources for families and schools.
Work With Us
The Wishing Barn is being developed as a gentle story world with room to grow across books, education, media, resources and wider storytelling opportunities.
We welcome conversations with publishers, agents, educators, schools, media, charities, brands and creative or commercial collaborators who connect with the heart of The Wishing Barn.
The Wishing Barn Star Wall
With huge thanks to the wonderful people who helped bring Socks the Sheep Who Felt Everything into the world.
Your support helped open the barn door and begin a series of gentle animal stories created to help children understand themselves and understand each other.
Barn Supporters
C
Callum
Abby
Kt
Toni
Pamela
Raven
Dylan
Kelly
Debbie
Sharon
Meghan
Thank you for believing in Socks, in The Wishing Barn, and in stories that help children feel understood.
Contact The Wishing Barn
For enquiries, collaborations, school resources or supporter questions, please get in touch.
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