Hello there!

My name is Ellen Duthie and I’m a writer of philosophy and literature for children.

I was born in Cádiz (Spain) in 1974 to British parents and spent most of my childhood there, with regular visits to our family in UK. I went to university in Edinburgh, where I read Philosophy. While I was at university I worked as a teacher for children and adults and it was then when I started introducing philosophical dialogue in the classroom as a means of engaging students, whatever the subject.

I now spend a large amount of my time facilitating philosophical workshops for people of all ages and teaching teachers how to bring questions and dialogue into the classroom in order to foster philosophical curiosity about the world.

In 2014 I cofounded the independent publishing imprint of philosophy and literature for children, Wonder Ponder, based in Madrid (Spain).

My first book in this project was Cruelty Bites. Half-way between a book and a game, it comes in a box and invites readers aged six and over (adults too!) to think about cruelty and our relationship with cruelty in a playful and careful way. The Wonder Ponder Visual Philosophy series introduces readers to philosophy's big questions in a way that seeks to be fun and appealing. Engaging scenes and intriguing questions prompt reflection and discussion, encouraging children to develop their own thoughts and arguments and to build a visual and conceptual map of the issue addressed in each box. Wonder Ponder boxes are designed to look at, read and think about by themselves or with others, in educational, play or family settings.

Cruelty Bites (Mundo cruel in Spanish) has been published in Spain (Wonder Ponder, in English and Spanish), Germany (Moritz Verlag), South Korea (Marubol), Italy (Logos Edizioni), Brazil (Boitatá), Mexico (Sexto Piso) and Argentina (Ediciones iamiqué). Other books in the same Visual Philosophy series include I, Person, Whatever You Want and Pinch Me!

My latest book in the Wonder Ponder project is Dying to Ask: 38 Questions from Kids About Death, cowritten with Anna Juan Cantavella, and illustrated by Andrea Antinori. For mortal beings of all ages, Dying to Ask was born out of an international project where children were invited to ask questions about death based on a series of workshops. The result? Hundreds of questions from countries all over the world. We selected thirty-eight questions that best represented the breadth and depth of children’s interest in death and related matters and set out to answer them in the form of illustrated letters.

It has been published or will shortly be published in Spain (Wonder Ponder), USA (Tra Publishing), Italy (Logos Edizioni), Argentina (Ediciones iamiqué), Germany (Thienemann), Russia (Samokat), China (People’s Literature Publishing Company), Brazil (Baiao), and Japan (Sogensha).

What now? I’m currently working on a project about war, following a similar creative process as we applied in Dying to Ask.
I am also working on the next title in the Visual Philosophy for All Ages series, and on a couple of new ideas for board books for toddlers. And much more!
Please feel free to contact me here if you have any questions: eduthie@wonderponderonline.com.