Local Teacher Authors Children’s Book Inspired by Joy of Reading

What started as an idea to pen a book his young son may like has now turned into something much bigger.

“My son was born this summer and I really just wanted something that he and I could share,” said Kaelon McLemore, who teaches business law at Cedar Hill High School.

Mclemore, who writes under the name K.K. McLemore, started writing "Max Stapleton and the Curse of Halloween" this summer.

“It’s a fun picture book for the whole family, especially ahead of Halloween,” McLemore said.

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The illustrations give kids the latitude to come up with their own ideas for how the story goes, he said. In this book, Stapleton discovers an Earth-shattering mystery and it’s up to him to find a way to restore the town back to its Halloween glory.

While his son’s birth nudged him to get going on the short story, he said it was interaction with the children with special needs.

“Going through those challenges with them really inspired me to have something that could be friendly to their needs to where they can get caught up on reading. I really wanted to help re-establish the foundation when it comes to reading,” McLemore said.