MADAWASKA, Maine (WABI) – Kids write what they know.
For seven-year-old Evan Nadeau of Madawaska, he knows all about his two rescue pups, Sadie and Tanner.
“I really like my pets. My dogs were my first ever pets,” he said.
“Tanner is basically your what? Your big brother, right? Tanner is very protective of Evan. He sleeps in Evan’s room every night. They are close.”
At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, Evan got inspired.
He wrote a story about Tanner and a funny adventure he takes in his backyard.
“He used giant paper so he could illustrate, and I would write the words that he wanted me to write. Then we did it for a Zoom class. This was April 2020,” explained his mom, Jessica. “He loves to illustrate it and draw and map it out. You can see the wheels turning so, it has been really fun watching him.”
His teacher was so impressed with his work, she encouraged him to enter the story he titled Tanner and the Magic Tongue into a young author writing contest, which he won.
Evan worked with a children’s book publishing company, Monster House Publishing based in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Illustrator, Meg Clark, helped Evan bring his drawings of his four-legged friends to life.
“That was one thing he was not budging on is that the book needed to look like Tanner and Sadie. But, she has done a great job. We’re pleased with how it all came out,” Nadeau said.
You might think a published author like Evan would love to read and write. Evan says that’s not the case, but he doesn’t plan to put his pencil down soon.
“From 2020 to now he’s written, I think seven books total that he has here at home and we’re waiting to see how this goes and how he likes being a published author,” said Nadeau.
Tanner and the Magic Tongue will be released on February 28th.
Evan may be new to this author thing, but trust me, this kid means business.
“We set a goal. How many books do you want to sell? 100,000,000. He said 100 and then he changed it to 100,000,000 because he wants to be a billionaire so it’s a lot of pressure for mommy. We did just set up an Instagram page for him and a Facebook page just to get some marketing going. The word has been spreading and a lot of people that didn’t know now know so it’s exciting,” said Nadeau.
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