Young author visits Weaver

Young author visits Weaver

Eslinger, 11, speaks to students about writing

WM School District Aidan Eslinger isn't your average 11-year-old.

The kid who was born in West Memphis and now resides in Conway, is already a published author and he's even set out on a fullfledged book tour.

Last week at Weaver Elementary, Eslinger brought dozens of copies of his book, The Colorful Sky, to read to the students. His presentation proved beyond his years. Eslinger is wellspoken, very driven, very polite, very humble and very encouraging to others.

'You all can do something like this… I promise you can,' said Eslinger to a class at Weaver. The fifth-grader at Carl Stuart Middle School in Conway says he's been writing since he was, get this, five years old.

'I love to write, and I've written lots of stories, so I finally asked myself…why not publish one of them?'

he said.

The first question posed to Eslinger was how difficult was it to find a publisher for his work.

'We self-published, actually,' he said, confidently.

'We used a web site called Create Space and they print all of our books for us. This was our first time, so we just did the best we could.'

Eslinger says he has two more stories he wants published.

'Just taking it step-bystep,' he added.

Eslinger added that he wanted to stop by two towns he used to live in to promote his book. He was born in West Memphis and also lived for a short while in Jonesboro. He visited some first-graders at a Jonesboro school as well.

'It feels great. It's very rewarding and I''m very blessed to be where I am right now,' he said. 'I'm

just so excited and I have my mom (Nadia) mostly to thank for it.’ Eslinger gave one copy of The Colorful Sky to each

class at Weaver and he gave each class the opportunity to buy their own copy. The book sells for $11.

By Billy Woods