Hi, I'm Shruti.

Why a story inside a coloring book?

Coloring is meant to be calm. A child settles in, picks a favorite crayon and slowly fills a page. Their hands are busy, their breathing slows, and their mind is free to wander and create.

I kept thinking about that quiet, relaxed moment. It felt like the perfect time for a story, and for a small lesson to come along with it. When children aren't being asked to sit still and listen, or to get an answer right, they're often more open to an idea.

So in my books, the story and the lesson live inside the pictures. There are no worksheets and nothing to get wrong, just a gentle story your little one colors their way through.

Why soft skills, and why so early?

Soft skills are the everyday people skills: being kind, waiting your turn, sharing, saying sorry, noticing how someone else feels, and bending a little when plans change. They help children make friends, handle big feelings and get along at home and at school.

The years from baby to about age eight are when these skills begin to take root. Little ones are learning, often for the very first time, what it feels like to wait, to share and to be brave. Stories give them a safe place to practice. They can watch a character feel nervous, make a mistake or help a friend, and try those feelings on with no pressure at all.

These early skills can matter for a long time. One study followed more than 750 children from kindergarten into their mid-twenties. Children whose teachers saw them as more helpful, cooperative and good at sharing at age five were more likely to finish school and to hold a full-time job as young adults.Read a summary of the study.

A coloring book can't do all of that on its own, of course. But I hope it can be one small, cozy way to talk about kindness, patience and friendship with your little one.