In a breath, 6-year-old Emily Alexander explains the plot of her book: “She hikes up a mountain and then she goes in a door and then she sees a tiger and she tries to get …”
That’s about where Alexander’s mom, Sara, cuts in, reminding her daughter not to give away the ending.
Emily Alexander wrote and illustrated “The Cheese Stick and the Mountain,” which she self-published through CreateSpace, an Amazon company.
The roughly 30-page book has been fluctuating in the Top 10 on Amazon’s Large Print Science Fiction/Fantasy bestseller list since its October release.
The book’s main character is a cheese stick named Skyline, on an adventure. Alexander, a first grader at Creekside Elementary School, named her after her older brother’s high school.
As for the species of character, that was all about taste.
“I really like cheese sticks,” she said.
Alexander is the youngest of three. She, her brothers and parents have lived in Sammamish for more than three years.
The Alexander family didn’t publish the book for the fame and fortune.
“This particular story just struck us as her voice,” Sara Alexander said. “For sure we were not expecting anyone else to buy it.”
Emily’s parents just wanted to preserve it. They bought a copy for themselves and for the Creekside library.
Now, her family boasts they’ve got a “best-selling author” in the house.
“Who would have thought?” Sara Alexander said. “It’s such a great boost to her confidence.”
And while Emily’s book has maintained a five-star rating in all seven online reviews, she was quick to say she really aspires to be a doctor.
Still, at home she’s “constantly pulling paper out of the printer and drawing things,” Sara Alexander said.
Sara Alexander said the “Little Critter” series, chapter books, along with her childhood favorite, the “Choose Your Own Adventure” series, spurred her daughter’s creativity.
As for Skyline, the “plucky cheese stick,” not even Emily knows what’s in store for her after she takes on the mysteries that await behind the “secret” door on the mountainside.
Perhaps an adventure set in the water, with an octopus.
To find Alexander’s book online, visit www.amazon.com/Cheese-Stick-Mountain-Emily-Alexander/dp/1517680816.
