Every story begins with a child. This collection began with a simple bedtime story.

In June 2026, I spent a day with two close friends in Switzerland and their two young sons. As evening fell, the older boy, Jordan, looked at me and asked, "Would you tell me a story?"

For the first time in my life, I opened a children's book and read The Crocodile Without a Friend. One story became two, and two became three.

When the evening ended, I realised something unexpected.

The story had not come from nowhere. It had been waiting quietly inside me.

For years, ideas, memories, questions, and hopes had been taking shape in my mind. As a researcher, many found their way into academic articles, policy reports, and books. Yet others seemed to belong somewhere different. They called for a different voice, one capable of speaking not only to the mind but also to the imagination.

That evening revealed what that voice could be.

Children's stories offered a home for those untold stories, reaching hearts in ways that academic writing never could. They could explore resilience, belonging, courage, identity, friendship, and our relationship with the living world in ways that invite wonder rather than argument.

Every story in 🌼Stories for a Fragile Planet 🌼is dedicated to a child I know.

Although the adventures are imagined, each tale is inspired by the child to whom it is dedicated, by their curiosity, courage, gentleness, resilience, or quiet strength. These stories are, quite simply, my gift to them, celebrating not who these children may become, but who they are already are.

At a time marked by climate change, biodiversity loss, loneliness, and uncertainty, stories remain one of humanity's oldest ways of cultivating empathy, courage, hope, and care. They remind us that another way of living together is always possible.

Each story is accompanied by original artwork, reflections on the ideas that inspired it, and short introductions to the Philippine myths, animals, and landscapes woven into the narrative.

Welcome to 🌼Stories for a Fragile Planet 🌼.

May these stories become companions for children and grown-ups alike. May they inspire wonder, kindness, and the courage to care. And may they remind every reader that a more flourishing world begins not with perfect heroes, but with ordinary people who choose, every day, to care for one another and for the living Earth.

A new story will be published every Saturday, beginning on 15 August 2026.

• 15 August 2026 – Silas and the Unwanted Guest

• 29 August 2026 – Liway and the Waiting Light

• 12 September 2026 – Tala and the Race Beyond the Chocolate Hills

• 26 September 2026 – Landas and the Thousand Paths of Mindoro

• 10 October 2026 – Diwa and the Golden Coconut

• 24 October 2026 – Alon, the Child of the Tides

• 7 November 2026 – Paru and the Forest that Grew too Warm

• 21 November 2026 – The Forest Where All Stories Meet

• 28 November 2026 - Live Storytelling planned in Berlin, Germany (TBC)