Braid's Books was put together to assist Elementary School Teachers, and more specifically, Elementary Counselors in locating and purchasing useful materials for the realm of Character Education. I, myself, am an Elementary School Counselor in the state of Virginia, and found that when I was looking for materials to cover various topics, there were very few resources that taught the children lessons AND was interesting and fun!
The first book I authored and illustrated was to teach tolerance and empathy. It's title is The Lavender Llama , I had gone looking for resources to assist the self-esteem realm in bi-racial children and found very little. It parallels the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, only this llama is lavender and no one wants to play with him, because he is a different color. Both the red and blue llamas think they're the best color, until they are all struck with the disease "discrimination" and it is up to The Lavender Llama to find the cure. The story introduces kids to the topic of discrimination and how "mutual respect" helps to cure the llamas.
The second book was inspired for me to write when I was in the library at my school, looking for resources and I overheard one of the students tattling to the librarian. I told her if she continued to tattle, she would grow a tail, and the more tattles she told the longer it would grow. The librarian laughed and told me I should write a story about it... at 3:00 am a little rhyme popped into my head, so I went downstairs and wrote it down, and thus A Tattle Tail Tale was born.
The third book was The Bully Book I wrote this book for children to be able to recognize the resources available to them when they are being bullied. I even used myself as a character in the story, so they recognize that I am here to help them when they deal with instances of bullying.
The fourth book was created when I went looking for resources to deal with children who steal. Considering the issue I would have thought there would be a lot of material on the market...not so. So I wrote and illustrated, Sticky Finger Consequences. I even gave a copy of it to our local WAL-MART store to use with a child who is being held for shoplifting.
The fifth book I wrote when I had a kindergartener who would not speak to any adults in school, due to a disorder known as Selective Mutism. The name of the book is Little No Speak. It is the story about a little bird who is afraid to speak for fear of being wrong. It talks about making mistakes, and how it is ok to make mistakes, because that is how we learn in life. I also use it in the beginning of the year to take the anxiety off and let the kids know that making mistakes is ok. It could probably be useful in dealing with the obsessive- compulsive child as well.
The sixth book was recommended for me to write when our school district needed resources to teach kids that it is not ok to cheat. The book was then illustrated and printed. The title of this one is Shady Brady.
All of the books are available from my other website-
http://hometown.aol.com/Counselortandy/Myhomepage/business.html
