South Brunswick Teen Pursues Literary Dreams

When school ends and summer vacation begins for students, many parents find themselves wishing their kids would do something productive with the time off, rather than waste their days playing video games or being couch potatoes.  

For Matt Gehring, a sophomore at South Brunswick High School, the summer break provided an opportunity to pursue his dreams, as he recently published his first book, an interactive children's book complete with illustrations about trying new things. 

"It was during the summer and I wasn't doing too much, so I decided I was going to write a book," Matt said. "I've loved writing and illustrating my entire life, and I put together pretend books when I was younger so I decided to try this professionally."

The Monmouth Junction resident then got to work on "Little Max's Big Adventure," a tale of a dog’s journey through a park, farm, and everything in between. Each animal Max meets during his journey has something special about them, which is shared through poems during the story.

"I wanted a happy book, but I also put in a minor conflict to show that not everything is perfect," Matt said. "I wanted him to go exploring new areas and meeting new animals, so I felt this was the best way to go about it.

"One thing I think is appealing is the fact that I have each animal talking in poems, which is something kids like and it teaches about rhyming with animals that appeal to children."

Matt said it took about six weeks to write, illustrate and format the book to get it ready for publication. 

"I'm not the best at writing a really long novel so I wanted to keep it short, but put enough details in the story with illustrations so it makes a point," he added. "I hope kids take away from this story the lesson that you should always help your friends and people who are in need."

For all their help and support along the way, Matt thanked his family for enabling him to pursue his dream.

"My mom is very proud of me and happy that I did something with my summer," he said. "One my aunts has kids and they really like it, so I thought that was a good sign. My grandparents said they knew I was capable of this, but I think they were surprised I could put it altogether. 

"I'm hoping this is the start of something. Right now I'm not working on anything, but the story could be continued. I'm not sure when, but I may work on the second one next summer."

"Little Max's Big Adventure" is available on Amazon.com. Click here for more information.