So Many Ways To Wonder
Books for curious kids, and the grownups who love their questions

Teach them how to think, not what to think.

Illustrated stories for ages 4 to 8 that visit families of many faiths, and none, so your child learns to ask, listen, and choose kindness.

Plus a weekly letter: one big question your child will actually ask, one story to explore it, and one kind thing to try this week.

Meet our family

Cover of So Many Ways To Wonder, showing Maddison with her red notebook, her seven friends, and a dog, gathered on a picnic blanket at sunset with lanterns glowing Cover of How Do We Know, showing Maddison, a friend, and a mother figure holding a glowing golden star lantern beside a pond on an autumn evening
The Wonder Kit cover, showing the seven friends, everything inside the kit, and a free badge

The free Wonder Kit, yours the moment you join.

Mike and Jennifer Dirks smiling with their daughter Mackenzie on Mike shoulders

Mike, Jennifer, and Mackenzie. The three of us, somewhere between a big question and lunch.

What these books are really for

Children start making up their own minds far earlier than we think. They are already deciding who to trust, what to believe, and how to treat the new kid.

We cannot make those decisions for them forever, and we would not want to. What we can do is equip them, one story at a time:

Ask the question

Curiosity is a skill. Maddison asks, out loud, the things children are often too shy to ask, and shows that asking is welcome.

Listen to understand

Each family explains itself in its own words. Children learn that a person can be fully understood without being agreed with.

Look for good reasons

Stories sit beside evidence. Wonder at the world and checking how things work are taught as friends, not rivals.

Say I do not know yet

Not knowing is treated as an honest place to stand, not a failure. It is the doorway to learning anything new.

Decide with kindness

Every visit ends in an act of care a child can copy the same day, because thinking well and treating people well belong together.

Think for yourself

No book in this series hands down the one right answer. They hand over the tools, and trust the child with them.

The books

The first book, So Many Ways To Wonder, introduces Maddison and her seven friends. Each visit shows one tradition from the inside, the way a child can understand it: through food, festivals, prayer, quiet, service, and wonder at the natural world.

Every family in the book is just one family. No two families believe or live in exactly the same way, and the book tells children that right up front. What the visits share is care. What they never share is one single belief, and that is the point.

Cover of So Many Ways To Wonder, Maddison little adventures with big questions, by Mike and Jennifer Dirks

So Many Ways To Wonder

Maddison’s little adventures with big questions

The book that starts it all. Maddison and her red notebook visit seven families, gather a heart for every act of care, and learn that there are so many ways to wonder, and so many ways to be kind.

Book 1 · Launches [DATE] on Amazon Get notified at launch
Cover of How Do We Know, Maddison and the runaway lantern, by Mike and Jennifer Dirks

How Do We Know?

Maddison and the runaway lantern

A golden lantern slips away into an autumn evening, and chasing it leads Maddison into the biggest thinking question of all: how do we know what we know. A story about evidence, trust, and learning to check, wrapped in lantern light.

Book 2 · Coming [SEASON] Get notified at launch

Ben and the Bread Bags

A Christian family packs food bags for neighbours they have never met.

Noah and the Shabbat Table

A Jewish family welcomes Shabbat, a weekly time to stop, rest, and be together.

Amina and the Care Basket

A Muslim family fills a basket for a neighbour who is unwell.

Priya and the Dancing Flower

A Hindu family celebrates Diwali, the festival of lights.

Kai and the Quiet Garden

A Buddhist family teaches Maddison a slow breath for big feelings.

Arjan and the Big Kitchen

A Sikh family serves langar, a free meal where everyone is equal and everyone is fed.

Zoe and the Busy Bee

A family with no religion explores the garden through science, and lends a neighbour a hand.

And the shelf keeps growing

New friends, new places, and new wonders are on the way. The goal on our wall: one hundred books.

Book 1 and Book 2 are arriving on Amazon.

Join the Wonder Letter and be the first to know each launch day, plus every book after these.

[Launch week perk: subscribers also get a bonus printable on launch day.]

Our story

We are Mike and Jennifer Dirks. We live in Vancouver, Canada, with our daughter Mackenzie and our dog Lego, who has three legs and strong opinions.

This shelf began at our kitchen table. Mackenzie started asking the biggest questions a small person can ask, and we went looking for books to read with her, books that show the beauty in all religions, in science, and in a life without traditional religious belief.

We could not find them. So we started making them ourselves.

The heart of it, for us, is this: it matters more to be a seeker than a believer. As soon as any of us decides we hold the only truth, we stop opening ourselves to other ideas and to other people. We would rather Mackenzie grows up curious, brave with questions, and kind to everyone whose answers differ from hers.

These are the values on the wall of our house, and inside every book we make:

LoveKindnessPatienceCompassionGenerosityScience and evidenceSaying I do not know yet
The Dirks family with their dog Lego beside a lily pond at sunset

All four of us, on one of the evening walks where most of these questions get asked.

Mike and Jennifer Dirks with Mackenzie on Mike shoulders, standing under a garden arch on a family trip

Wondering travels well. Mackenzie on shoulders, as usual.

Come along with us: the Wonder Letter

A free weekly note to families wondering together. About a three minute read.

One big question

The kind children actually ask. Who made the stars? Why do people pray? Where did the world begin?

One story or book

A gentle way to explore that question together, drawn from many traditions and from science.

One kind thing to try

A small act of care your family can do this week, worth a heart in the wondering notebook.

And a free gift to start: the Wonder Kit

Printable tools for wondering together, in your inbox right after you join:

  • Conversation cards: questions to ask your child after each story
  • A printable wondering notebook for your child
  • A year of festivals page for the fridge
  • The seven stories from Book 1, told in parent form
The Wonder Kit cover, showing the seven friends, everything inside the kit, and a free badge