Stories for lives in motion
Brave & Rooted
Brave & Rooted is where RootKindLife’s ideas find their way into story. It’s the part of the work that sits on a child’s bookshelf or bedside table, carried in a school bag or read on a sofa at the end of the day.
These are stories for families living through change — new places, new schools, new ways of belonging. They don’t come as instructions or programmes. They arrive as characters, images and small moments that can be read aloud, returned to and talked about in the quiet spaces around a move.
Brave & Rooted begins with The Acorn Who Wore Wellies, the first in a small family of stories written for children whose roots are learning to stretch.
Meet Briony Dell
Brave & Rooted stories are written under the pen name Briony Dell. Briony is the part of RootKindLife that writes for children and the adults who read with them — the voice that notices small details, follows characters into new places, and stays with them as they find their feet.
The stories grew out of years of watching families navigate moves, school changes and new beginnings, and wanting something gentle to reach for at story time. Rather than offering advice, Briony’s work stays close to the texture of a child’s day: the walk to school, the feel of a new classroom, the way a familiar tree can anchor a whole season.
Briony Dell sits alongside RootKindLife’s other work, keeping the storytelling space simple, warm and clearly its own.
The Acorn Who Wore Wellies
The Acorn Who Wore Wellies follows a small acorn who begins life in St Mary’s Village, under a tree that has watched over the same field for a very long time. One day, the acorn is lifted up, carried across the island to St Ouen, and planted in a place where everything feels a little different — the light, the soil, the sounds of the day.
The story moves at the pace of the acorn’s seasons: rain on the wellies, wind in the branches, the slow work of putting down roots in unfamiliar ground. Along the way, familiar landmarks from Jersey appear in the background, anchoring the acorn’s journey in a landscape many families will recognise.
Told in a gentle, read‑aloud voice, The Acorn Who Wore Wellies makes room for the small details of a move — the things a child might notice and carry with them — without needing to turn those moments into lessons.
A note for grown‑ups
At the back of The Acorn Who Wore Wellies there is a short note written just for the adults who share the story. It points to a few small moments woven into the narrative — a pause for breath, a way of noticing the body, a quiet check‑in at the end of the day — that some readers may want to linger on or talk about afterward.
The note doesn’t turn the book into a programme or a set of exercises. It simply names a handful of threads that are already there in the story, so that a parent, carer or teacher who is curious can follow them in their own way, with the children they know best.
Bringing Brave & Rooted home
If The Acorn Who Wore Wellies sounds like a story you’d like to share, you can buy the e‑book online and have it ready for the next quiet moment — a bedtime read, a rainy afternoon, or a long‑awaited call with family in another place.
The book is available through Gumroad, where you’ll see the price clearly before you decide whether to complete your purchase.
You’ll be taken to Gumroad, where you can review the details and price before you choose.