About Lou
An Australian Mum who reads a lot
An Australian Mum who reads a lot and writes the books families keep.
It starts with a feeling.
Five people ahead of you, and your turn still coming. An ice cream melting faster than you can lick it. The screen going off, right at the best bit. A shoe that is simply not where you left it.
To a grown-up, these are small moments. To a child, they are the whole world, all at once. And for the tired grown-up standing beside them, they are the moments nobody handed us a script for.
I'm an Australian Mum who reads a lot and writes the books families keep. And I kept noticing the same thing: plenty of books tell children what to do. Very few start with how they feel.
So that's where every Lou Vella Book starts. With the wobble in the tummy. The red-hot hands. The “That's MINE!” Then the story does what stories do best. A child watches someone just like them get cross, get it wrong, find a way through, and land on words they can say out loud: “I can do this.”
The lesson is never announced. It's in there quietly, the way a good hug is.
Each book takes on one of the big everyday challenges families face right now: screens, big feelings, money, bedtime, friends, safety and school. Each comes as a rhyming picture book for little ones and a funny chapter book for when they're older, so the story grows with the child.
The pictures are real watercolour with plenty of white paper, calm and bright, with room to breathe. The places feel Australian. The feelings belong to every child, everywhere.
I want them to be the books a child hands back and says, “Again.” The books that make the hard moment a little easier. The books families keep.
— Lou
What makes them ours
Six things every book keeps
- Feeling firstThe child's feeling leads every page. The lesson is never said out loud.
- Real, current challengesScreens, meltdowns, money, bedtime, friends, safety, school.
- Grows with the childEvery story as a rhyming picture book, and a funny chapter book for later.
- Real watercolourPaint on paper, with plenty of white. You'll know it's ours from a thumbnail.
- Australian heartLocal places and local words. Feelings every child shares.
- Safe to copyNothing on the page a child could copy and get hurt.
What every story gives back
Ten things every child needs to feel. Each book gives at least one of them back.
- safe
- belong
- understood
- some control
- capable
- fair
- not left out
- know what happens next
- loved even when I get it wrong
- proud of myself
Who is Lou Vella?
An Australian Mum who reads a lot and writes the books families keep. Lou writes under her own name and doesn't appear publicly — no photographs, no video. The books and the characters do the talking, which is how she likes it.