ELORA – Susan and Gerald Benham of Elora have published their first children’s book, The Adventures of Cody Cowlick and the Twin Rockets.
The book follows Cody Cowlick and his twin best friends, the “twin rockets,” as they explore and problem solve their way through Elora.
“It’s about three little boys from Centre Wellington, and they’re all real boys, and they went to school together,” said Gerald. “One of my best friends, his son, had this massive cowlick when he was growing up.”
Gerald says he would pretend to spit into his hand and chase Cody around to “fix his hair.”
“I’d pretend and chase him around and he’d be running all around trying to avoid me,” he said with a laugh. “Now he’s 30 years old.”
Gerald said he told Cody that he was going to write a book about him and his cowlick someday. And with the help of his wife, he did.
Gerald also included two of Cody’s friends.
“They’re twins, and the three of them were the same age, and they went to the same school,” said Gerald.
Gerald says the book took about six hours to write but “6,000 hours to get it to be a book.” He credits his wife Susan for her hard work illustrating each page.
“I illustrated it to the best of my ability,” said Susan. “It was a lesson in perseverance. Learning how to draw and trace. I did a lot of practicing by tracing and tracing and tracing.”
The book was officially self published in July of this year.
“[We got] the first copy at the end of June, and one of the characters in the book is actually Susan’s uncle, and we wanted to make sure that he’d seen it because he’s 94,” said Gerald. “I want to make sure that he’s seen it because he’s one of the characters.”
Part of the book is the concept of accepting oneself as Cody comes to appreciate his cowlick rather than dislike it.
“The idea is that usually Cody doesn’t really accept [or] doesn’t like having the cowlick,” said Gerald.
“Usually the cowlick sometimes gets them into trouble, then, in the end, gets them out of trouble.”
Susan and Gerald have done readings of the book in schools in Arthur and Kitchener, where they say they have received plenty of positive feedback from both students and school staff.
Both Gerald and Susan expressed their gratitude to those who have purchased a book and look forward to hopefully writing a second book in the coming year.
To purchase a copy of The Adventures of Cody Cowlick and the Twin Rockets, visit Codycowlick.ca.
