The Saline Courier Weekend

Bryant High graduate Wesley Peters releases children’s book

- By Destin Davis ddavis@bentoncour­ier.com

Bryant High School graduate Wesley Peters has just penned his third children’s book, “Bullies,” which is a children’s story about peer-to-peer conflict resolution.

Peters aimed to write a fun story that can also teach kids to actively assess, evaluate, and respond to conflict appropriat­ely within the classroom or with their peers.

The art and illustrati­ons for “Bullies” were done by Giovanni Perkins of Dallas.

Peters is also excited to share artist Perkins’ illustrati­ons for the book. “The pictures are beautiful, and she did a wonderful job of telling the story,” he said.

Peters, who is not only an author but is also involved in community activism, started working on children’s books in 2019 after working on the Little Rock mayoral election.

He graduated from Bryant High School in 2015 and attended the University of Central Arkansas.

Peters started experiment­ing with this book idea in 2019 when he would take it to classrooms and have students act out the plot.

Having initially sold his first book door to door, Peters transition­ed to classroom visits, where he encountere­d a pivotal moment at in a third grade class at Brady Elementary in Little Rock.

After reading to the students, they expressed a desire to create their book ideas, prompting Peters to guide them through a creative process. Peters broke his cousin’s third-grade classroom into four groups and had each group come up with an idea for a story. One of the groups came up with the idea of doing a story about bullies, which inspired Peters to write the book.

When asked about the connection between his children’s

 ?? DESTIN DAVIS / The Saline Courier ?? Wesley Peters, Bryant High graduate and author of the recently released children’s book “Bullies.”“bullies” is the third children’s book written by Peters to be published.
DESTIN DAVIS / The Saline Courier Wesley Peters, Bryant High graduate and author of the recently released children’s book “Bullies.”“bullies” is the third children’s book written by Peters to be published.

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