LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- What started as a fourth grade writing assignment led a student at a Fort Knox school to publish his own children's book.
According to a news release Thursday from Fort Knox News, 11-year-old Chance Brown always wanted to be a published author. So when his fourth grade glass was told to write their own fiction stories last year, he tackled the assignment with relish.
Chance's mother, Lt. Col. Carla Brown, said he worked on the story for weeks.
"As he kept developing his story, he would add a line and then read through it all again," she said in the news release. "At the end of three weeks, I said, 'Wow Chance, I think you have enough here for a children's book."
She said he replied, "Yes! That's what I want to do."
What emerged was his story, "Attack on Blobville: The Return of Bydoom." The next step was finding an illustrator.
"The illustrator would ask what a character looked like and I would describe it," Carla said. "However, the illustrator always made sure that it was what Chance wanted."
"It took us a while to line up the pictures with the words and pages," Chance said. "Once that was done, it was such a relief."
Although Carla helped, she said she wanted to make sure that the project reflected her son's vision, not that of his parents.
"The whole concept, not just the writing but the pictures too, everything is all of his ideas without allowing my husband or I to have an undue influence," she said. "There were points where I kind of wanted to 'Soldier' this book up, but I didn't. We just let it flow the way he envisioned it -- the text and the pictures."
Chance credits his aunt, an author and publisher, for instilling in him a desire to write.
"During the summer before fourth grade, we went to help at her book signing in Detroit," he said. "I saw what all went along with that and I w anted to do it."
Once the book was published, Chance started doing book readings in front of audiences that included fellow Fort Knox students. That required practice with his mom.
"Before my book readings, we constantly read it over and over," he said. "She would tell me that I needed to be louder and add tone to the characters."
His most recent book reading was at Barr Memorial Library at Fort Knox.
"At my book signing there were kids even younger than me who said they wanted to write a book," Chance said. "They said I inspired them. That made me happy. Even some of my friends said I inspired them."
And Chance said his writing career is far from over.
"I'm hoping in the future maybe making it into a cartoon or even a movie," he said. "I'm working on my second 'Attack on Blobville.' I have a lot of ideas going through my head."
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