HONGYUE WU & STAFF WRITERS
Pacific Pines primary school teacher Alison Collier has written a new book that is designed to help children deal with the feelings that arise when they can’t always “win”.
The book, which is called I’m Not Afraid of Losing… Anymore, has received rave reviews on Amazon in the category of children’s books on self-esteem and self-respect, and helps children create strategies to cope when they lose.
The character in the book likes to play games but doesn’t like to lose, and risks losing his friends because he gets angry when he loses.
In the story the character is helped to develop strategies to cope with losing, so that he is a better sport and so that his friends are happy to keep playing with him.
Ms Collier, who works full time as a SEP (special education program) teacher at Park Lake State School, combines her experience as a school teacher with her writing skills to show children how to achieve success and how to deal with problems in different ways.
“I just want children to know that even though sometimes learning might be difficult, they can still try their best to achieve their goals,” she said.
Ms Collier said her own experience of writing and trying to publish I’m Not Afraid of Losing… Anymore was in itself a good model for children to learn from.
As a new author she experienced hundreds of rejections before achieving her goal of publishing the book, which also meant overcoming fear of failure.
It is a tale that almost exactly mirrors the main concept of her book.
Ms Collier said she has spent a lot of time writing and trying to publish her books, and said her success with I’m Not Afraid of Losing… Anymore was no accident.
“I’ve [spent] 25 years making this book,” she said.
“I have written books before and sent them to the publishers, and I got hundreds of rejections.”
“So I set a goal to become an author.”
Ms Collier said she researched self-publishing and made her goal a reality.
“It wasn’t very easy, either, and I had to learn a lot, but it was successful in the end,” she said.
Ms Collier said I’m Not Afraid of Losing… Anymore used some theories from psychology and neurobiology to help children deal with their problems, and said she wanted to use these strategies to teach children how to adjust their mindset.
As a result, the book is not just for children to read, but can also help parents and teachers find effective ways to teach children about dealing with their emotions.
Ms Collier said she thought the success of I’m not afraid of Losing… Anymore would be hugely beneficial for her writing career.
She said she planned to continue writing and already had ideas for more books, thanks to her years of experience as a teacher.
“I want to do a series of ‘I‘m Not Afraid Anymore’ books,” Ms Collier said.
“I’ve got 29 ideas,” she said.
“I’m very excited about this.”
Park Lake State School teacher Kim Simons, who works with Ms Collier, has become a huge fan of her book and thinks it could encourage many children when they are faced with a problem.
“Alison’s new book is fantastic and it addresses an issue many children find it difficult to deal with,” Ms Simons said.
Ms Simons said Alison Collier was a highly skilled and experienced educator who could help empower more children as a published author.
“She has a true gift in being able to relate to children’s needs and [she] works with them in a proactive way to build confidence and resilience,” Ms Simons said.
I’m not afraid of Losing… Anymore is available in both printed and digital editions from online bookseller Amazon.