young author finds his place in writing children’s adventure books | New

HAVERHILL – Dressed in his gear and armed with a camera, Mitchell Foy embarked on an adventure to photograph anything in his path.

He thought he would meet a red fox, a deer, or maybe a family of turkeys or other woodland creatures.

“That’s when I found the tracks of a Tyrannosaurus Rex,” he says. “Then I saw her. She was walking away but I followed her into a land of living dinosaurs.

This is the essence of a children’s book that Foy, 20, wrote and illustrated during his senior year at Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School.

“I got the idea from my graphic arts teacher, Brian Trainor, who told me and the rest of the class to write a short story,” he said.

He recalled his preschool days at Pentucket Lake Elementary School and a 100-day school party for which he brought 100 plastic dinosaurs he had collected over time.

“Since I love dinosaurs, I included them in my story,” he said. “I continued to write and when Mr. Trainor saw me drawing sketches for the assignment, he encouraged me to turn my story into a children’s book and find a publishing house.

Mitchell Foy lives in Haverhill with his parents Michelle and Shawn Foy and his older brother, David Foy.

Michelle Foy said she contacted the Austin Macauley publishing house and then sent her son’s story and illustrations, hoping it would grab their attention.

“We mailed it to them in October and last November they told us they wanted to publish it,” she said.

“After several rounds of re-reading of his book by Mitchell, the first copies arrived in August.”

She said the book was a smash hit at an Oct. 16 event at the Sawmill Ridge Community Center in Atkinson. A large crowd arrived to listen to Mitchell Foy read his book “T-Rex and Me,” she said.

At the end of his reading he received a standing ovation, then those present lined up to buy the book and have it signed. The line of more than 100 people lasted more than two hours, he said.

“We sold that day and now we’re ordering more,” he said of his book, which he says should appeal to kids from kindergarten through elementary school.

Mitchell Foy was diagnosed with autism at age 5, but says it never stopped him from passing all MCAS exams, graduating from high school, writing a children’s book and work on another.

He said his second book involved a brave knight in shining armor battling a fierce dragon.

“I think the dragon and I will become friends, just like the T-Rex has become my friend,” he said.

Mitchell Foy’s book is available on Amazon and via Austin Macauley Publishers USA.

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