Gutsy Books
Bold Reads from Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Books for living in a real body.
When we are young, we rely on grownups to navigate our world for us. Every kid craves an accurate understanding of reality, and that is often sacraficed in the name of safety. For generations, books have served as portals to safely explore and understand uncomfortable or risky truths.
I started Gutsy Books because I looked out into the publishing world and I didn't see brands supporting kids' need for the structured exploration of fear and ambition.
Hands-on education on scale and natural law.
Born to Read
Feeling the Narrative
When I was a kid, my favorite books were the ones that unnerved me a little. Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark or Roald Dahl’s The Witches thrilled me, because they gave me a window to the world that the adults otherwise wouldn't allow.
“What I remember most clearly was that the experience I craved from reading these books was the felt experience — the chills running up my spine or the drop in my stomach. I didn’t know it at the time, but what I wanted was a safe environment to explore the way my body responded to emotions.”
When the grownup world didn't feel safe, books felt like a portal to another realm where I was in control of my emotions and how they affected my mind and my body.
Gutsy Books is a safe space to ensure books like this are published, in an era of ever-increasing sanitization. We make tactile, grounded books that steady the physical body and give children permission to feel reality on reality's terms: from fear and doubt to wild curiosity and honest ambition.
Mommy Loves You
Before exploring fear or ambition, every child needs a floor that holds.
A bedtime promise of permanence
When we are apart, love is not an accident that fades with time. It is a permanent knot of light pressed directly into the currents of the water, the earth beneath your feet, the fire in the night, and the stars.
Printed with staple / saddle stitch binding so panoramic spreads open completely flat in a child's lap.
Photo & Video Gallery
Silent bedtime slow-motion page-turn test
Rich indigo paper and glowing knot
Zero detail lost in the center fold — opens completely flat
“When we can't be in each other's arms, we touch each other through the water, the earth, and the wind. The fire, the stars, and the end of time.”
Forthcoming Field Guides
Expanding the container for feelings children aren't supposed to have.
Disappoint Me
“Disappoint me. Please disappoint me. Please disappoint me so I can show you that it's safe here.”
A radical rupture of the standard compliance audition. Proving the floor holds by dropping dead weight onto it without the sky falling.
Something to Someone
“I don't want to be everything to everyone. But I don't want to be nothing to no one either. I want to be a double cheeseburger on a blue paper plate.”
An eccentric, ambling celebration of hyper-specific identity, ending with a mirror on the final page turn.
Community & Direct Inquiries
Gutsy Books welcomes inquiries from independent booksellers, educators, local reading spaces, and kindred spirits.