Author
Iris Prévoteau has been an early intervention specialist for 5 years, and has worked with children for 12 years in home instruction and classroom settings. After years of teaching social skills, the most effective practice that worked for her students was the use of social skill books and role-playing examples and non-examples of the target social skill. Iris is excited to encourage child-led and hands-on learning with the rainbow friends social skills books, which uses a fun format similar to a choose your own adventure book.
Iris lives in Columbus, Ohio with her husband, Jason, and two dogs, Winston (Wheaten Terrier) and Arya (Goldendoodle). In her spare time she enjoys reading, Irish dancing and fiddle, knitting/crocheting, writing, hiking, and photography.
Illustrator
Mandi Prevoteau is a special education teacher who creates digital illustrations in her spare time. Tayla Teal Takes Turns is her first full-length illustrated children’s book, which is the first installation of the Rainbow Friends series. Her main motivation to be part of this series is to help students with special needs.
Mandi lives in San Francisco, California with her husband, Alex, and cat, Rascal. She is an avid reader, enjoys creating digital art, painting, and yoga. To see more of Mandi’s work, visit mandilynnart.com
Journey to the Series
Iris Prévoteau (author), came up with this concept when reminiscing about her childhood. One day she was thinking, “What ever happened to the Choose your Own Adventure chapter books?” She thought about how powerful it was for the reader to be in charge of the story, and how it made an impression on her at a young age. Also during this time, she was researching teaching practices and ideas to teach social skills to her preschool students. She found the most impactful practices for her students were integrating literature, discussions comparing story events to her students’ experiences, and role-playing common play scenarios. In situations where her and her students were having problems with a friend and discussing solutions, she often heard them say “I remember that from acting it out,” or “I remember that from the book we read.”
The concept of the Rainbow Friends Social Skills Book Series and Tayla Teal Takes Turns started to develop from this point. After discussing the idea with fellow educators and family members a need for a tool like the series was apparent. Iris started to develop a format and write up a draft. Also at this time, she asked, Mandi Prévoteau, Iris’s sister-in-law if she would be interested in illustrating the book. Mandi, who had an extensive art background and a special education teacher herself, was eager to jump on board! Iris thought the different colored hair for each character would be novel and fun for children, especially since a hot topic of conversation for young children is their preference of color.
The first draft was called “Tina Teal Takes Turns,” but Iris didn’t think the name Tina was common enough for young children. Mandi and Iris researched “T” girl names to match the title when she thought “Tayla” would be a perfect fit. This name was a good fit also because it was the name of a young girl Mandi and Iris worked with doing home instruction for several years. It was an honor to name the main character after this sweet young lady.