The days are long and warm, fields fill with new grass and flowers. Birds and butterflies color the sky.

But everyone is out enjoying the days, and possible conflicts are always near…

Fields, ponds, streams, and meadows are ripe with food and fun.

This deserves a closer look…

Is this a creature in a thing, or is it one thing altogether?

Communication begins… probably with the turtle equivalent of “put me down.”

Where will this relationship go from here?

Our bear dreams of water deep enough to be home to another lifeform… but what and where is this?

Wander’s spring dream opener, and the ending winter dream.

Turning the page in Wander, our bear has moved on, enjoying the beauty of everything and taking a moment to take it all in.

After an early spring snack… on an empty stomach, our bear experiences a little regret.

Both Apple Books and Print versions of Wander include a full glossary. The Apple Books version is formatted for the iPad with additional “tappable” glyphs with shortcut definitions:

Wander was featured 2/15/26 in Kirkus Reviews: Best Indie Books of February

Wander’s unique pictographs offer a fun decoding adventure for readers to figure out – first – the basic language of our bear and then suss out the story being told.

Page one’s glyphs above, are my interpretation. There is no “correct” interpretation, because, like all stories, we understand their meaning as a reflection of how we understand ourselves - and over time, all of our stories become richer.

Fun beaver fact #12: Beavers have a set of transparent eyelids that function like swimming goggles, allowing them to see clearly underwater.

Full Review: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/holly-valero/wander-Valero/

I grew up with a black cat called Moonrise, who used to remove eggs from the hen house nests… she’d sit in the grass, egg cradled between her paws, neatly remove the top bit of shell by perforating the edges with her fangs… and eat the egg. Never once disturbed the chickens…

Mother of all cats on our farm… she was one of two cats living on our vacant, run-down farm when we arrived. The other cat we called Sunset. Each named for the time of day they were spotted.

All dreams come with a flip side.

Our day dreams are echoes lost in a fog of distraction. But they are just as vibrant as our night dreams… and trying to reach us.

All the colors you see during the day are still there at night. All the stars you see at night are still there during the day.