Q&A with Sofie Wells and Ali Barclay

 

 

 

Sofie Wells and Ali Barclay are the authors of the new children's picture book The Tales of Charlie Wags: Paris, the latest in their Charlie Wags series. They are sisters. 

 

Q: Why did you pick Paris for your new Charlie Wags book?

A: Paris is one of our favorite cities in the world, and it felt like it completed our first trio—the three books we wanted to launch with (alongside NYC and London)—when we were first mapping out the series a couple of years ago.

 

Q: How did you choose the places Charlie would visit in Paris?

A: It’s always a challenge, especially with a city as vast as Paris. You can walk for miles and miles and be in complete awe of your surroundings: the architecture, the history, the art—even the café scene is an experience.

 

We always try to step back and consider, first of all, what we can realistically accomplish in a few short lines in a children’s book, and which landmarks lend themselves to being explained gently in that format.

 

We also think about which landmarks someone who’s never been might recognize from conversations or stories—because our goal has always been to provide a gentle introduction to cities and help kids recognize some of the major ones, even if they haven’t had the chance to visit.

 

Q: You’re working with the same illustrator again, Sanna Sjöström—how would you describe your partnership?

A: The first three books were really interesting because you can see the confidence grow from everyone involved—and I think this is the first book (that’s published!) where you start to see Sanna experimenting with new things. Even just comparing the clouds in Book 1 to Paris, the perspectives are sometimes more playful. You’ll definitely see that as the series progresses.

We love these first three books because they were our debut effort, but we also wrote and executed them a solid year before working on the next ones.

 

For example, we’re currently illustrating Book 6, which is due out in March 2026. And I think Book 4 (due later this year) is when you really start to see all of us step into the series from a more confident place. 

 

The writing is more playful, Charlie’s personality starts to come out more, and Sanna continued to become more and more independent—while also understanding exactly the kind of charming, fun details we’re looking for.

So we’re really excited for readers to experience the next wave of Charlie Wags books, which are scheduled to begin releasing later this year and into 2026. We keep improving all the little details that we could easily be content with—because they’re working well enough—but we didn’t settle. We all pushed beyond.

 

Q: What do you hope kids take away from the book?

A: As always with the Charlie Wags series, we just want to spark interest in the world beyond their everyday life. It’s a gentle and conversational introduction to what’s out there—a little, “Hey, look at how different these buildings are. They’re so old, and there’s a ton of interesting history that we might not be as familiar with as we are with our own.”

Maybe that leads to a child thinking, “I want to learn more about that when I’m older,” or “I want to go there someday.”

One of our favorite things ever is when we read the books with our kids (who are both 2, and best friends)—we’ll be reading, and they’ll point to something and say, “[their name] go there!” They want to go see these places. That’s a win for us.

 

Kids are naturally curious, but they can also be creatures of habit—they tend to gravitate toward what’s familiar. So if this story opens the door to something new, even just a little, we’re thrilled.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: We recently announced a new chapter for Charlie Wags: our Buy a Book, Share an Adventure™ initiative. For every book purchased, we donate a matching copy to a child who could use an adventure of their own: kids in long-term hospital care, under-resourced schools, foster care, or shelters.

 

It’s completely renewed our mission and purpose. We made an opening donation of 1,500 books to For Love & Buttercup, a nonprofit that delivers books to children facing cancer treatment. It will be the honor of a lifetime to watch this piece of Charlie Wags grow.

The idea came from a simple realization: there are many reasons people don’t travel, but there are also children and families that just simply don’t have the option—at least not right now.

 

Whether they’re spending their days within the four walls of a hospital room or growing up without shelves of books at home, we hope Charlie’s stories can offer a small window into all the possibilities that are out there waiting for them to explore.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Sofie Wells and Ali Barclay. This Q&A was conducted in partnership with Sofie Wells and Ali Barclay. Enter this giveaway for a chance to win a signed hardcover copy of The Tales of Charlie Wags: New York City, a collection of adorable Charlie Wags greeting cards, AND a $50 Amazon gift card to fuel your next reading spree!