The Story Behind Our Stories

It started with a toddler who wouldn’t sit down. Bathtime was a nightly negotiation, so we tried standard bath books to buy some seated calm. The problem? They were over before they really began. Most had just a few scattered words, and many had none at all.

This felt like a huge missed opportunity. We all know how critical daily reading is for early brain development, but finding time in the chaos of modern family life is harder than ever.

Bathtime happens every single night. It’s one of the few guaranteed moments we get with our kids where they are a truly captive audience. Bringing a real story into the water solves the time problem—guaranteeing those crucial reading minutes while calming them down for bed. If the books made for the tub weren't going to help us read together, I decided to write them myself.

And so, Bathies was born. Our three books take place at the Walla-Walla-Wando watering hole (because kids love silly, made-up words). The adventures flow delightfully together as our characters—Beatrice the baboon, Harriet the hornbill, and Leona the leopard—each need a bath for a different reason, learning something valuable along the way.

At an average of 250 words, these aren't your typical bath books. That difference is the entire point: they are long enough to actually build vocabulary, create meaningful connection, and make a daily routine feel special.

Deciding to write them was the easy part. Everything else took years—juggling three kids, a full-time job at Google, learning the ins and outs of the publishing world, and passing the rigorous safety testing required for bath toys. But the writing itself felt like second nature. I come from a family of writers (my aunt ghostwrote for The Boxcar Children), and a deep respect for storytelling is in my DNA. I wanted to write for two people at once: creating something a child reaches for night after night, and something a parent doesn't mind reading on repeat.

After spending my career in digital technology, I find myself deeply drawn to the timelessness and tangibility of this routine. In an era rushing to shift everything to AI, there is something profoundly refreshing about the fact that children will always take baths, and physical books will always be one of the best things we can put in their hands. It is beautifully, stubbornly analog. And playing a small part in that feels like work worth doing.

— Mallory Berlin, Founder