The Adventures of Aya & Pete

The Amazing Adventures of Aya & Pete tell the stories of a little girl named Aya, who travels the world with her parents and her buddy, Pete. Whether they are trying croque-monsieur sandwiches in Paris or exploring Mayan ruins in Mexico, Aya and Pete are always ready for the adventure and excitement of exploring a new place.

Each story in the Amazing Adventures of Aya & Pete travel series features a different destination and highlights interesting aspects of the city or country – geography, language, food, culture, currency and key landmarks – through fun exchanges between Aya and Pete. At the end of each story, Aya collects a souvenir unique to the destination to remind her of their travels.

This children’s travel book series is a must-have for young travelers. Intended audience is children ages 3-8 years old. Features diverse, multicultural lead characters and a female protagonist.

About the Author
The idea for a children’s travel book series was not immediately apparent to me. But looking around my daughter’s room one day, I realized how difficult it was to find things – books, toys, clothing – that reflected our values and worldview. Books especially. How few of the books on her shelf reflected what she saw in the mirror or the experiences we worked hard to expose her to.

I realized then, why not curate my own collection? I loved to travel. I traveled far and wide well before having a child, and I had lived overseas as an expat. I wanted to collect and share items from around the world that would teach children about the great big world we live in.

Then in 2015, we had the remarkable opportunity to move our family overseas. We sold nearly all of our belongings, and moved, first to Europe, then to Africa, then back to Europe. During our time overseas, I traveled with our daughter, who was less than 2 years old at the time, to over 20 countries. It was during this time that the idea came to me for The Amazing Adventures of Aya & Pete. Over the course of three years, I saw how the world opened up to my daughter and shaped her into a global citizen at an extremely young age. She heard foreign languages, ate strange new foods, made new friends and adapted to different cultures with relative ease.

We created Aya & Pete for a number of reasons. The first being that I love to write. Second, I wanted to share my daughter’s experiences traveling the world and the information she picked up through fun stories that would appeal to children and their parents. Lastly, I wanted to inspire other children, regardless of where they live or their family’s means, to be curious about the world. To know that there is a much bigger world out there, beyond their neighborhoods or their towns, and that they belong in it just as much as anyone else. To see someone who looks like them, or someone who doesn’t look like them, flying on airplanes, visiting landmarks, speaking other languages, eating different foods, and just generally being at home in the world.

This last goal is the biggest inspiration for this series. If we can inspire just one child with our stories, we would have realized our passion.