Extraordinary Stories

Extraordinary Stories explores the idea that within every person is a chapter worthy of a published book. It aims to teach children from 13-17 years of age that everyone they encounter has experiences and wisdom from which to learn and to prove that they don't have to be famous to have lived a successful and fulfilling life.

Children often look to professional athletes, influencers and reality TV stars for inspiration on how to lead a more interesting and 'successful' life. While these people are often able to provide a unique and publicly consumable view, Extraordinary Stories explores and celebrates the fact that the postal worker, your local grocery store employee, your neighbour, doctor, teacher and even parents, have stories to tell, advice, experiences and wisdom to share.

Extraordinary Stories is perfectly suited to the TikTok and YouTube savvy generations who scroll quickly though content and are easily bored. To attract the teen readers in this fast-paced digital age, this book is a series of short stories based on real people whose names, places and some details are excluded for privacy reasons unless otherwise requested by the interviewee. Artslaw lawyers have been engaged to provide the correct legal documentation for interviewee release forms and ICIP storyteller and artwork licensing agreements for the Indigenous chapters.

Extraordinary Stories is written in a format unlike other books on the market for the young reader. It touches on a range of serious topics but discusses them in age-appropriate language for the target audience. These stories vary from shocking, heartwarming and inspiring and will take the reader to different times and places and expose them to many alternative perspectives and hopefully by the end of the book the reader will start to understand that every person in their life could have experienced hardships, overcome loss, achieved greatness and have words they live by that might change the reader's perspective on life. Extraordinary Stories explores the idea of "if only I knew then what I know now," to give wisdom to the youth who may be navigating similar experiences. It aims to highlight the need to ask meaningful questions from those in your community, to encourage conversation and to develop greater kindness and empathy to those around you.

Extraordinary Stories is made up of 17 short stories, one per chapter, named after the person interviewed or their pseudonym chosen for anonymity. Each story is fascinatingly unique although similar themes are found across the book. This shows that even though the reader may not relate to the exact situation an interviewee found themselves in, there are still circumstances we all go through as part of the human experience. An example of this may be bullying which was experienced by many interviewees despite their different life situations, locations, socio-economic background, cultural heritage, family structure etc.

From two amazing Indigenous storytellers of the Wailwan community whose insights into their cultural heritage have served as a vital link to the identity of the Aboriginal people to a CrossFit para-champion, a lawyer, a Muay Thai fighter, an Olympian and a fashion designer, this book is filled with short stories that introduce everyday people, their extraordinary lives and what we can learn from them.