A LOCAL teacher has created and published his own children’s story and picture book to highlight bullying.

Sam Turner, who lives in Jurston Fields, Wellington, with his wife Emily and two-year-old son Jamie, teaches at Churchstanton Primary school. Sam is in his fifth year of teaching and originally created the character from his book as a teaching resource.

The book, Brock The Sock is all about anti-bullying and follows Brock, a sock without a matching pair, to find a friend. Along the way he is picked on by all the other matching socks until he meets another odd sock and they become friends. The idea is a different way of introducing kids to inequality and bullying. With rhyming text, Brock’s adventure flows from page to page.

He said: “I originally created the text for an anti-bullying week at school. When I started showing it to friends, family and the kids at school, they all told me how good it was. This spurred me on to turn it into a fully fledged kids’ book.”

Originally Sam stored the idea of Brock the Sock away, as he didn’t know of any illustrators to help create the book. Then a close friend’s wife offered to illustrate for him and they quickly bounced ideas off each other. Rhea Bromfield, also known as Xiaqing Zhou, began illustrating the story. They are now working closely on the next instalment and toying with the idea of creating a larger universe.

Sam said: “We might have something planned for Christmas.” 

Along with the book, Sam has also had a life-size version of Brock the Sock turned into a cuddly toy. The plushie was a special order from America. Sam said: “Every time I go to a school to read the book the older kids want to the buy the book and the plushie.”

He said he is working on getting more made, along with a line of merchandise. Sam also hopes to turn his story into an e-book.

One of his inspirations to create the rhyming text was Doctor Zeus, and he hopes that his book will encourage children to want to write.

Brock the Sock book is available now on Amazon.