THUNDER BAY -- As an elementary school teacher up in Nibinamik First Nation, local author Dave Mossman had a dream of writing a children’s book.
Mossman did just that with the help of co-author Brian Nolet. Together they released Jungle Buddyz: A Race to Remember, available now on Amazon.
The book focuses on social-emotional learning issues that kids face today, in terms of how to manage their emotions and their behaviours.
“Those are a big focus across the school curriculums in Canada,” Mossman said.
“We also really want to help kids with how to handle their emotions and their feelings of anger, sadness or feeling left out. That’s a big reason why we created these books.”
The book tells the story of a nervous sloth named Scooter, who faces anxiousness before a big race in the jungle. Scooter gets help from his friends throughout the event.
Mossman and Nolet have been working on the book since last spring. They also received help from Ottawa illustrator Chris Rose.
“To feel that copy of our book in our hands after seven months of working really hard was very rewarding,” Mossman said.
“What’s even more rewarding was all of the feedback that we’ve gotten so far from parents and educators in Canada and in the United States. We’ve also had people purchasing the book from France, Australia, and the U.K.”
This is the first in a series of Jungle Buddyz books that will be coming out over the course of this year, focusing on different emotions that kids go through.
“In that (next) book, we’re focusing on Milo the Monkey, who will be left out of a certain situation. His friends are going to help him out through those emotions and help him process that.”
Mossman’s goal through the book series is that parents, teachers and social workers can have a resource they can use to help kids as they go through a variety of feelings.
“As a teacher, I see a lot of kids in our school deal with different kinds of emotions, whether that’s feeling sad, angry or left out,” Mossman added.
“Brian and I really wanted to focus our books on teaching kids on how to deal with that.”
More information on the Jungle Buddyz books, which are available in both English and French, can be found on their website.
-- With files from Jessah Clement, TBTNews
