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Benton girl pens her first children’s book
BENTON, Mo. — Ellie Houston, a 10-year-old who will be entering fifth grade at Kelly Elementary this fall, has just published her first book, “Leah and the Pumpkin.”
Known by her family and friends for her talent in writing stories, painting, drawing and reading, Ellie is already making waves in the literary world with her imaginative storytelling.
Ellie said she has always enjoyed writing her own stories, both for school and for her own entertainment.
“A lot of times I would just come home, find a notebook and just write random stories,” Ellie said.
Ellie said her love of writing stemmed from her love of reading, which inspired her to begin writing stories.
Ellie said she wrote the book, “Leah and the Pumpkin,” about a year ago. The night she finished writing the book, she read it to her mother, Shelley Houston, who said she loved it.
About a year later, Ellie and her mom met an author of a book at the 100-mile yard sale who had used Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.
“The author talked with us and explained how we could do everything and watched some YouTube videos on how to get it published through Amazon,” Houston said.
Houston said getting it published was a process, and they had to create their own illustrations for the book as well.
Houston said they created the illustrations using MidJourney and Canva.
According to Houston, Ellie had wanted to publish books for a while but wasn’t sure which story to publish.
“She’s written many stories, but she just kept going back to this one, “Leah and the Pumpkin,’” Houston said.
Ellie said she chose “Leah and the Pumpkin” as the book she wanted to publish because she created it entirely on her own.
“It’s my favorite story that I have wrote because it wasn’t based off of a different story that I have already read,” Ellie said. “The title was inspired by a drawing I did.”
According to Ellie, the story is about a little girl with red hair and blue eyes who is lonely and decides to draw on pumpkins.
“Leah soon displays her pumpkins to the town and she starts to gain friends,” Ellie said. “Leah’s best friend is named Kinder, and Leah and Kinder is based off of me and my friend Rachael.”
Houston nodded.
“And then in the story, other girls joined in and all the girls did pumpkin art, and at the end of the book, the town is renamed Pumpkin Town because of their pumpkin art,” Houston said. “It really is a cute little book.”
Ellie said she plans to publish another book in the future.
“I am actually working on another book right now called, ‘Leah at Sea,’” Ellie said. “My first book, I was 9 when I wrote it, and now I know more descriptive words so I’m excited for the next book.”
Ellie said she intends to write a whole series of Leah books.
Houston said the book is available for checkout in all seven New Madrid County libraries. The book will also be available in Kelly’s elementary library as well as one of the elementary school libraries of Sikeston Public Schools. It can also be purchased from Amazon.