CAPE MAY — At just 8 years old, Ava Bohn is not just enjoying reading books — she’s writing them. The Cape May City Elementary School student wrote “The Story of the Shark,” which was published and available on Amazon at the end of last year.
Ava wrote the story for fun during the morning before school started. Her mother, school nurse Tiffany Bohn, was online one day and saw a publishing company. She thought it would be interesting to submit her daughter’s book to see if it could lead to anything.
To her surprise, she heard back from the publisher that they would publish and sell the book on Amazon. She didn’t tell Ava until after the holidays, when everything was finalized with Panda Publishing Agency.
“The cover was created by the publishing company, but the illustrations on the inside are [Ava’s],” Bohn said, adding that Ava has had a lot of support from teachers and staff at Cape May City Elementary School, including library manager Megan Reed.
Ava reads all genres of books and said she was inspired to write her own. The story follows a shark named Roger and an octopus named Mia, two unlikely friends who find each other in the ocean.
“The octopus is Mia because my teacher, Ms. Ramsay, has a baby named Mia, and I wanted to surprise her,” Ava said.
The story follows Roger and Mia through difficult situations. They overcome obstacles together and end their year enjoying the Christmas season together.
“I always encourage my students to read, because reading is a main teaching tool in life,” Reed said. “With Ava wanting to write a book and publishing [one], proves to the other students that they could do it, too, and that reading is a way of opening new doors and inspire imagination.”
Reed added that she tries to instill a lifelong love of reading in her students and is proud of Ava’s accomplishment.
She had a book signing in January at the Mad Batter Restaurant, where she sold out of all her books. She also had a signing at A Piece of Cake Bakery in March. Her classmates, friends and family attended her signings.
“My friends think since I’m famous, they’re famous, too,” Ava said, adding about her friends who came to her book signings.
Holding her book for the first time inspired Ava to greater heights, and she now hopes to write more books in the future.
“I’m going to write a book about shark facts,” she said.
By RACHEL SHUBIN/Special to the Star and Wave
