Wildling Books

    

ABOUT THE CREATORS


There is a little WILDLING in all of us.

That inner child that loved to run wild and free, without the judgement of the world bearing down on them. That authentic, passionate, mindful creator in all of us. We had that spark when we were young and want to bring that back through the work we do here. It’s about remembering that WILDLING within us and allowing space to create from a place of true passion. Allowing our inner WILDLING room to come alive again.

Wildling Books was formed when multi-award winner author/illustrator Craig Phillips and author and business owner Bex Lipp joined forces. They wanted to create their own range of books with full creative freedom. With an amazing ability to bounce ideas off each other and really let their inner WILDLING get carried away, the crew have been able to produce a series of best-selling and award-winning picture books about emotions and wellbeing, with more amazing books in the pipelines. The Wildling range of books are created to empower children, to start conversations around emotions, and promote wellbeing. Empowering and inspiring children through stories.

We believe in protecting the innocence of childhood but at the same time providing literacy around emotions and wellbeing in order to keep our children safe.

Craig Phillips & Rebekah (Bex) Lipp at the 2022 NZ Book Awards for Children & Young Adults with bestselling book, How Do I Feel? A Dictionary of Emotions

 

Craig Phillips received the NZ Children & Young Adults Book Award for Best Illustration in 2018 for his first book Giants, Trolls, Witches, Beasts: Ten Tales from the Deep, Dark Woods, published by Allen & Unwin. Craig then produced the first two graphic novels in the The Adventures of Jack Scratch series for Wildling Books. Comics are a huge love for Craig and something he has always wanted to create.

Bex Lipp co-wrote the book ‘Finding Gratitude’ through Quarto Publishing in the US. Bex’s own personal story of struggles with mental health issues led her to come up with the ideas behind the picture books, with a focus on emotions, anxiety and general well-being.

The growing range of books were created like magic... Bex and Craig let their creativity and knowledge really go WILD and it has proven to be a massive help to children, parents, teachers, caregivers and professionals working with children.

 

More about Craig Phillips

Craig Phillips has worked as a professional illustrator for the US and Australian publishing industries for twenty years. His client list includes Random House, Scholastic, Simon and Schuster, Hachette, Hardie Grant, Bloomsbury, Oxford University Press and many more. His work has appeared in art anthologies such as The Society of Illustrators Annual, Spectrum Fantastic Art Annual and Luerzers 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide, and has been exhibited at the Museum of American Illustration. Phillips also worked on Neil Gaiman’s American Gods in 2017. His first solo work, titled Giants, Trolls, Witches, Beasts: Ten Tales from the Deep, Dark Woods (Allen and Unwin, 2017) won the NZ Book Award’s Russell Clark Award for Illustration, a Gold Ledger in the Australian Ledger Awards, a Notable Book in the CBCA Awards and was also a finalist in the Aurealis Awards.

Most recently How Do I Feel? A Dictionary of Emotions was awarded as a Notable Book in the Storylines Book Awards 2021 and was also a Finalist in the 2022 NZ Book Awards for Children & Young Adults.

Rebekah (Bex) Lipp 

More about Bex Lipp

With a passion to bring awareness to the mental health of children from her own personal story, Bex has now been asked to speak at events around the topic of the creation of Aroha’s Way, anxiety and mental health.  After going through two years of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), after ending up in crisis in her early twenties, Bex felt there was a real gap in what the professionals knew and what parents and teachers needed to know.  Bex strongly feels that we can empower our children with skills, to help prevent them from ending up in crisis like she did.  Using the skills she has learnt throughout her journey with anxiety, depression, self-harm, body dysmorphia and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) she is creating books with messages to help children connect with their emotions and learn ways to regulate them.

With a gentle parenting approach, Bex feels that all children have genius within them and if we act out of a place of compassion, kindness and love, we will see our children thrive.

Bex was thrilled that How Do I Feel? A Dictionary of Emotions was awarded as a Notable Book in the Storylines Book Awards 2021 and was also a Finalist in the 2022 NZ Book Awards for Children & Young Adults.

 

Laura Phillips – Wildling Art Director

Laura's book cover designs for The Gateway series, published by Hardie Grant Egmont, were finalists for Best Book Cover Design at the Australian Book Design Awards in 2016. Laura worked as Senior Designer at Vogue Australia, and has also designed for clients such as Converse, Karrimor, Virgin Records UK and Mushroom Records Australia. Laura’s graphic design and art directing experience ensures that the overall look and layout of the books we produce flow, with beautiful visual appeal. She designs our books with dyslexia friendly fonts as well as beautiful paper quality for those children who are more tactile. 
Laura’s eye for detail and skills mean we produce the highest quality publications here at Wildling Books.
______

At Wildling HQ, we have lots of laughs and try not to be too serious!  We are a team of fun adults, with lots of little wildlings that help keep us on our toes and inspire us every single day.

The Younglings from Wildling HQ giving books away to unsuspecting children in Taupō for Christmas