McIlvain, an associate dean and professor in the college’s School of Kinesiology, said although this is not his typical sports medicine publication, he believes this might be his best work yet.
“We adopted our son Cooper from South Korea in 2010 and since then we have watched his love for reading grow each day,” McIlvain said. “He has played around with writing what he calls ‘paper books’ and staples them together. The idea for this book began when he won a gold fish at his kindergarten fall festival. When talking to me, his descriptions were humorous… so I started jotting them down on a napkin where we were eating.”
One year later and with help from a friend who illustrated the book, “Don’t Feed the Fish French Fries” was published by New York City-based Page Publishing and is now available for purchase at bookstores or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play and Barnes and Noble.
McIlvain said watching his son open the box from Page Publishing was fun and seeing the smile on Cooper’s face when he held the hardback copy was priceless.
McIlvain said, “It’s a book for younger children about the great things they will get to do when they start kindergarten. It also shows other children that just because you are only 8 years old… that doesn’t mean that you can’t be an author, inventor or whatever you want to be.”
McIlvain and Cooper will sign copies of their book at the Empire Book store located in Pullman Square from 1-3 p.m. on Saturday, April 14. Cooper will sign copies of the book from 6-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 22, at Summit Elementary during the school’s literacy night.
To learn more about the book, visit http://www.prweb.com/releases/2018/02/prweb15198654.htm.