Channing Hall Assistant Principal Aaron Webb sat down in front of a group of kindergartners in the school library. Before reading to them, he told the students to look for a big tree, a red car, a cat and other illustrations.

Then, he cracked open to read the children’s book he penned and autographed.

“Is That Alive?” is Webb’s first book.

“There’s different elements in the book, like the cat, the car, playing ball with the dog, and those are good jumping off points for kids to relate to,” he said. “Once they see the dog, they may be able to relate it to a pet they have and make a connection. The younger kids often ask me if I really do have a dog named Toby while the older ones ask if it was hard to write a book. I want them to realize, if I can do this, if I can pull it off, maybe some of them can as well.”

In the children’s book, a boy asks his dog if things around him are alive, tying it into school curriculum.

The book is dedicated to both students at Channing Hall and Parley’s Park Elementary in Park City, the latter where Webb previously taught and got the idea for his book.

“I was walking past a second-grade class who were at the school salad bar. They were talking about what makes something alive. I knew it was a part of the science curriculum and I thought it would be fun to create a story, exploring that,” he said. “I used to write educational children’s musicals; this is just another way to be expressive and creative. In the musicals, I always had a character, Marco, for Marco Polo, so Marco is my main character in the book. I have a beagle named Toby, so he joins him in this story.”

Webb initially wrote the first draft of his book in 2020, then set it aside.

“I decided last school year to bring it back to life. I had my English major friends edit it for me. We talked about the book’s language and making it accessible for young children, so they can read it, or they can read it with their parents or teachers,” he said.

In the book, Webb uses vocabulary, such as the word, nutrients.

“Academic vocabulary is important with younger students, because they are capable of learning and understanding advanced terms; we need to expose them to it,” he said. “I also pose the question at the end of the book because I want to start a conversation between parents and their children, or teachers and their students. Learning what is alive is not necessarily innately understood. There are certain characteristics an object or thing has before considered to be alive so having a story to illustrate those characteristics will help it become more understandable. Then, by coming up with examples from their real life and their environment helps determine A, do they understand the story? and B, how can they apply it to the rest of their world?”

Once Webb was happy with his text, he located an illustrator using fiverr.com.

“I submitted it to a few illustrators and got some samples and settled on this style and this illustrator. That process took several months as he would send drafts, and I would say, what I liked about this picture, what I thought might change. So, we would go back and forth and that could take a while, but I couldn’t have asked for better illustrations,” he said about Danh Tran Art.

Webb decided to self-publish his book.

“I wanted to just get it out there. I think a lot of people wait to be picked up by a publishing company, and sometimes it’s more important to just create,” he said. “But there is a learning curve using all the technical tools to put it together. A lot of books have a graphic designer who puts together all the elements. This was my first project, so I had to learn how to space the margins appropriately, how to make sure that the cover worked correctly and had to make sure that the font and font size was appropriate. All those nitty gritty details, I didn’t foresee so I learned a lot through the process.”

Once published, Webb shared it with his two nephews who are a few years older than his target audience of kindergarten through second grade.

“They read it and told me it was fun,” he said. “I printed 50 copies to give out to people and friends and family. The Channing Hall staff have been supportive, and they have copies and there’s one in the school library.”

When it was released last spring, Webb read it to the Channing Hall kindergarten classes, and the librarian showed a video of it to other elementary school students.

“I talked a little bit about working with the illustrator, and how I’m interested in science. We also have a gifted and talented program, and I want to give a presentation with those children, showing them it is possible to realize your creative dreams,” he said.

Webb’s dream is continuing.

“Now I’ve been bitten and need to do it more,” he said. “The kids always ask, ‘Are you going to write another one, Mr. Webb?’ It would be a fun summer project. I’m thinking of space and solar system, gravity, the moon, something to tie into that science curriculum. Or something related to social studies like Utah’s history and geographical features. I love the idea of under the sea. It’s teeming with life the ocean; that’s a huge area for exploration. In my musicals, it was Marco and a growing cast of characters. He had an older sister named Amelia, named after Amelia Earhart, I’d like to bring her in.”

Webb also said if he is to make the book into a series, he would try to sell them and add a component to give a portion of the profit to a local organization, such as the Humane Society of Utah.

“If it sparks their sense of wonder in their environment and the world around them, then I know I’ve been successful,” he said.