Whitefish

Young Author Taps Into Kids Creativity
Where do you go for inspiration? Katrin Frye introduces us to a Whitefish author who finds his muse when he gets in trouble.

Baxter Graham / Author: "My dad actually yelled at me for this, I dropped an egg."

The yolk splattered in the kitchen ended up as a comic. One of many scenes from his life Baxter translated into story.

Graham: "I based a cartoon on him because I just love chickens."

Bawks the Rooster inspires many stories. These cartoons add to Baxters portfolio. The 12-year-old and his dad Bob Graham published "Old King Stinky Toes" last year. The book emerged from a story Baxter made up for his dad 5-years-ago. Both encourage tapping into kids creativity and imagination, and putting it to paper.

Graham: "We can do stuff like adults, we're just not the same size."

Baxter's book made quite a splash. One call came in from a man in New York who raved about it. All this from a story they could have thrown out years ago.

Graham: "Instead of just putting your work on the fridge, and like, taking a magnet and putting it on there, and it either gets lost, falls off, or you throw it away. We want people to just save those in a folder, or on the computer, and, one day, it'll maybe happen that they get a book published. They hope to involve more kids - possibly by starting a newsletter published by kids, of kids work."

Baxter wants other kids to get the satisfaction of seeing their work in print. If you'd like to meet this young author, and see if he can give you any tips - Baxter has a book signing on Saturday at 3, in the Kalispell Borders.

Reporter: Katrin Frye