Irene Greaves Brings Lovescaping to the Next Generation

With I Am a Lovescaper, Irene Greaves translates her Lovescaping philosophy into an accessible, heart-centered guide for children and families, using 15 everyday stories to teach love as an active, learnable life skill. Rooted in her global work with youth and inspired by motherhood, the book introduces core values like empathy, humility, and solidarity through reflection prompts and the gentle guidance of Ms. Ama, inviting classrooms and households alike to practice love not just as a feeling, but as something lived daily.

Hi Irene, to start, congratulations on publishing I Am a Lovescaper. What inspired you to bring the Lovescaping philosophy into a children’s book, and why did this feel like the right moment to do so?
Thank you! Ever since publishing my first book, Lovescaping: Building the Humanity of Tomorrow by Practicing Love in Action in 2018, I knew I wanted to create a children’s version. Most of my work has always been with children and youth, and I felt they deserved a book that spoke directly to them.

The idea for this exact book came to me in 2021. I could clearly see it — 15 stories, one for each pillar, where children practice love in action in everyday life. I wanted it to be inclusive, relatable, and reflective of the real emotional worlds children live in.

Becoming a mother in 2023 deepened that desire even more. I wanted to write a book for my daughter Eloisa — and for all children — to grow up knowing they are capable of being Lovescapers. After eight years of dedicating my life to teaching these principles, it felt like the right moment for the message to live in a form children and families could hold in their hands.

Your book introduces the 15 pillars of Lovescaping through everyday stories and reflection prompts. How did you decide which values to highlight and how to make them accessible for both children and adults?
The 15 pillars of Lovescaping were born in 2015 when I graduated from my master’s program in education. I began asking myself: What makes love possible? The answer became these 15 values — qualities like empathy, honesty, humility, liberation, and solidarity — which I believe are not only essential, but teachable and learnable.

Over the past eight years, I’ve taught these pillars to children, youth, and adults in many different contexts. The stories in the book are inspired by real life — some from my own childhood, and many drawn from experiences of children, friends, and communities I’ve worked with around the world.

I wanted the stories to reflect situations children truly face, including emotions and challenges we don’t always know how to talk about. By pairing each story with reflection prompts, the book invites both children and adults into conversation, making love in action something we practice together.

Ms. Ama serves as a guide throughout the book. What does she represent for you, and how does her presence help children engage with deeper concepts like empathy, respect, and solidarity?
Ms. Ama represents the universal Lovescaping teacher. She embodies the 15 pillars and teaches not just through words, but through her actions and the way she relates to her students.

She highlights the wisdom of children and helps them recognize that they are already practicing love in action when they live out the pillars. To me, Ms. Ama is a reflection of all the dedicated teachers around the world who understand that education is about more than academics — it’s about nurturing love, kindness, hope, and human connection.

Her voice helps make deeper concepts like empathy, respect, and solidarity feel simple and accessible. She gently guides children to see the meaning in everyday moments and recognize their own capacity to be Lovescapers.

Your work has taken you across classrooms, communities, and countries around the world. How have your global experiences shaped the way you approach teaching love as a life skill?
My global journey is truly what gave birth to Lovescaping. Living and working across different countries, cultures, and communities showed me that while our languages, traditions, and circumstances may differ, our human needs are universal.

Everywhere I went, I saw that every human being wants to be loved, seen, heard, and valued. Every person wants to matter. Every person needs a witness to their experience.

These experiences helped me understand that love is not just a feeling — it’s an action. It’s something we practice through how we listen, how we speak, how we show up for one another, and how we repair when harm happens. Teaching love as a life skill means giving people the tools to build relationships across differences and to create spaces where everyone feels they belong.

Looking ahead, how do you hope families, educators, and children will use I Am a Lovescaper in their daily lives, and what impact do you ultimately hope it creates?
I hope this book finds its way into homes and classrooms around the world so children can grow up seeing themselves as Lovescapers.

It’s designed to be interactive — something families can read together, using the reflection prompts to share their own stories and practice the pillars in daily life. In classrooms, it can become a shared language, helping children and teachers build a culture rooted in empathy, respect, and connection.

Ultimately, I hope the book helps nurture a generation that understands love not just as a feeling, but as a daily practice — one that shapes how we treat ourselves, each other, and the world around us.

The book is available in English and Spanish in paperback and Hardcover versions:
https://a.co/d/6wmGpdF
https://a.co/d/7yUDUDx

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