This Inwood native wrote a children's book as his debut book

Iwood native and substance abuse counselor James McCullough was home thinking about how he could help spread the message of acceptance to children worldwide.

In the past year, McCullough attempted to do that by writing a children’s book, “The Adventures of Ellie the Elephant, A Journey of Friendship.”

McCullough, a 1980 Lawrence High School graduate, now living in Long Beach, California, gained inspiration to spread his message because of his time living in Inwood and attending schools in the Lawrence district.

The diversity of his friend group in high school and their nonjudgmental attitude toward their differences is what inspired the concept of the book.

“I had a great childhood,” he said. “Believe it or not, we are all still pretty good friends. We have our own little Zoom group that meets every Tuesday.”

The story revolves around Ellie, the elephant, who gets lost in her parade of families. After getting lost, she meets an owl, a monkey and a lion, each sharing their distinct characteristics.

To help Ellie find her way back to her family, the diverse group of animals form a friendship and work together to reunite Ellie with her family. Ellie then realizes that it doesn’t matter what you look like to build a friendship.

McCullough said he does not have children.

When asked why he decided to write a children’s book as his debut book, he said that when he was in school, the students who were Italians, Jewish, Spanish and of different races would all get along and that is the message he hopes to bring the next generation with animals.

“I want everyone to know we can get along,” he said. “We can do this. I know we can and that’s what I am trying to get them to understand. We can do so much better.”

McCullough won’t stop after the release of his book as he is already preparing for his second book, which would be the start of a series he hopes to make.

“The second one will be completely different,” he said. “But it’s going to wind up being in the same time frame.”

He previewed the series revolving around a character named Billy, named after his brother, who goes on a family vacation to Europe and along the way, learns about the European culture, landmarks and meets friends who are different from him. He hopes to expand the series with Billy visiting other countries such as Spain and France.

The concept of the series McCullough said is an adventure for Billy to become familiar with cultures around the world as he travels.

After the book’s release, McCullough was overjoyed to see a picture of a young boy reading his book sent from a parent.

“If I don’t get anything else out of this, that was worth it,” he said. “That was the best reward I can get.”

“The Adventures of Ellie the Elephant, A Journey of Friendship” is available on Amazon.