ALTO, Mich. — Facing obstacles with courage and braveness. It’s the message to kids in the new book, "Bryson the Brave Bison: Finding the Courage to Face the Storm", written by Nate Davenport and Luke Freshwater.
“It's a 32-page rhyming book. And the book is geared towards courage and leadership,” said Davenport. “Facing the storms is kind of an image of hard things in life that are going to come about and be able to charge headlong into those.”
The picture book focuses on a bison facing a fierce storm, helping his bison friends to be brave. It’s aimed for children ages 4 to 8.
“Bison, I think emulate courage and embracing storms, obviously, because they quite literally run into storms, they face them,” said Davenport. “And so just a great image of the book specifically.”
While the book is focused for younger children, the messaging can be applied to anyone.
“We think it’s timely coming out of COVID. Everybody dealt with a storm through that. So now having the choice to challenge ourselves and choose courage and face other storms, something we encourage parents and kids alike to do,” said Davenport.
Davenport and Freshwater have known each other since they were college aged, playing baseball together. Their past experiences and current journey as fathers led to inspiration of the book.
“Luke went into the military was active duty and worked, leading bomb squads there with special forces in Afghanistan. So a brave and courageous guy in his own right,” said Davenport. “We reconnected after that. We've got seven children between us and want to be intentional fathers and parents who are raising brave kids.”
The book is illustrated by New York Times bestselling illustrator Richard Cowdrey, and being published by Zonderkidz, located in Grand Rapids. It’s been a journey for the debut authors.
“It's a dream come true, something that we wanted to do for quite some time. The total process has been about a year and a half to two years to see it come to fruition,” said Davenport.
The book will be released to the public on Tuesday, June 27. Two events are taking place in Kent County on Monday to celebrate the book, meet the authors and other giveaways for children:
- 10 a.m. — Boulder Ridge Wild Animal Park in Alto
- 2 p.m. — Schuler Books in Grand Rapids
You can find more information on the book here.
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