Third-grader has two books on Amazon

Inspired youngster writes and illustrates.

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When Annie Pryor was very young, she wrote a book, saved it and read it to daughter Katie as a toddler. Whether that inspired Katie or not, Annie’s not sure — but at 8, Katie now has written, illustrated and published two books, and is working on the third in her “Princess Katie” series.

“Katie started making up, then writing stories when she was very young,” said her mother. “I found that Amazon has a CreateSpace, where books can be uploaded for free, and they’re made when orders come in.”

She told her daughter, now a third-grader at Bell Creek Elementary School, that if she wrote and illustrated a complete book, they’d try out the site.

“Last winter, she wrote the story and did preliminary drawings, then drew and colored a picture for each page over the summer. She worked so hard until it was finished — then I formatted and uploaded it to the Amazon site.”

Katie's first book, "Princess Katie and the Fairy Tea Party," is available on Amazon, and her second book,"Princess Katie and the Mermaid Lagoon," was released Sept. 7. She's already begun her third book, "Princess Katie and the Sweet Shop."

“I like princesses a lot, so I made myself into a princess in the stories,” says Katie. “I had to work really hard, especially on the drawings. I use lots of pink, because that’s my favorite color.”

There are no boys in her books, “because they wouldn’t want to come to a tea party or a mermaid lagoon,” notes the young author/illustrator.

“I am so proud of Katie and all of the hard work she’s done to publish her first two books,” says her father, Jonothan Pryor. ”All the hours she spent perfecting her illustrations and writing her stories has really given her a sense of accomplishment.”

“She has a list of about 10 books she wants to do,” said her mother. “All of them are about Katie, but there are other princesses in some of the books, all friends of Katie’s.”

After her first book was published, Annie helped Katie throw a tea party for her friends, and a few boys attended, including her two brothers, 6-year-old Michael and 12-year-old Jon. “Michael wants to publish books someday, too, but Jon wants to be a movie maker and already has his own YouTube channel,” said Annie.

“My books are in the school library,” says Katie. “My teacher read my first book out loud to the whole class, and they liked it, especially the girls.

“I don’t know yet if I want to grow up and be a writer, but I do want to do more now because I have lots of titles in my head.” And, she has a bedroom full of princess items to inspire her. “I’ve got famous princess dolls from movies, and princess costumes – I’m usually a princess at Halloween, and will be this year, too.”

Katie’s books sell for $9.95 each on Amazon, and her royalty is $2 a book, which her mother says “is going to her college fund — or a pink castle.”

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