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Amanda has always loved writing, right from the time of writing her first "real" story about a turtle when she was eight. The process can be tortuous, involving hours of thinking, then trying to capture those thoughts in words, then trying to put them on paper.
The process of writing Dave is Brave began more than 5 years ago. It began with a collection of ideas for stories that could be used to explicitly teach social skills to young children of all abilities.
This was a combination of Amanda's passion for writing, and her passion for helping children and their families cope with life's social and emotional challenges.
Out of a jumble of ideas, Amanda decided to focus on a story about bullying, or aggression. When teaching children both with and without disabilities, and working with their families, one of the key social issues that often emerged was aggression. She was concerned about bullying and its effects on children. She was also concerned that children labelled as bullies were often children whose developmental or sensory disabilities prevented them from learning the necessary language and social skills to enable them to develop socially in the same way as their peers.
So Amanda thought of the story she had heard and learnt from as a young child - the story of David and Goliath. For those who know the story, if you look beyond the war-like gory conflict, it is simply about a struggle for power and domination. This is a core element of the definition of bullying (see the discussion on The Learn to be Buddies Series blog).
So, if you are wondering where the names of the characters come from, now you know.
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It took months to hone the story of Dave is Brave. It all began with a bit of tongue-in-cheek experimentation where, instead of saying, "Golly was a bully" the book read "Golly was a wally." Amanda worked this out of the story as it did not fit the aim of explicitly teaching social skills.
The story had almost reached its current form in late 2006, when Amanda began seriously to look for an illustrator. But it wasn't until mid-2008 when the collaboration between Amanda and Daniel East really began.
In December, 2008, after a few frantic months of illustration, we released a slide show of what now seems to be a very raw version of Dave is Brave
Daniel worked very hard on the illustrations throughout the first half of 2009. At the same time, Amanda started building the Learn to be Buddies website and writing on the Learn to be Buddies blog.
As Daniel added more illustrations, Amanda also started designing the Dave is Brave games and Activity plans. And, after getting some feedback on the Dave is Brave slide show, Amanda also added some more text to the story.
Then, in late June, the day finally came when the illustrations were finished and it was time to put the book together. Two proofs and a few grey hairs later, Dave is Brave - the real book! - was born.
When the boxes of books arrived, Amanda was so excited she made a YouTube video... it was the culmination of a long-held dream.
In exploring the book, Amanda's favourite page was:
Dave is Brave and the related range of products are now available to be purchased as a pack.
But Dave is Brave is just the beginning. It is only the first book in the Learn to be Buddies series. You can keep up to date with what is happening with the next book by subscribing to our newsletter.
You will find all our products described in our store. You can also find out more and give us feedback on our blog.
Copyright Amanda Gray 2009-2010 Last updated 7th February, 2010