Blackwell's Children's Book to Benefit AU

Auburn University trust ee and Huntsville businessman John Blackwell has written and published The ABC's of Auburn, a colorfully illustrated children's book, and plans to donate profits from its sales to Auburn. The 34-page book relates each letter of the alphabet to an Auburn tradition.

"It was a fun and interesting project," says Blackwell, who served as chairman of the AU Board of Trustees Agriculture Committee for several years. "My wife, Shirley, had seen a book similar to this one and basically told me, 'You ought to do something like this.'"

Blackwell's interest in penning a children's book was additionally spurred on by his role as a grandfather of six. Cover illustrator Anne Hicks' likenesses of Grant, Colby, Mason, Anne Banks, Channy and Duncan Blackwell are featured on the book's cover and on the inside flyleaf.

"The idea was to make it sort of a family affair," Blackwell says. "Initially, I'd wanted my son, Slade, to do the artwork. He has a lot of artistic talent. But he knew quickly that it would be a lot of work and would require a lot of time."

When his son couldn't devote the time to the art, Blackwell decided to keep the project within the family-the Auburn family, that is.

"We put our heads together and came up with the idea of contacting the art department at Auburn to put us in touch with students that might be interested in helping," Blackwell says. "It worked out great. I was really pleased with the designs they came up with."

In fact, Blackwell said the toughest part of putting the book together was deciding which art to use from the drawings that were submitted.

"The students knew what each letter was going to stand for, and we'd have more than one student draw an illustration for a particular letter," Blackwell says. "They would approach them in different ways and they had a lot of fun with some of them. Making the final decisions on what we used and what we didn't use was certainly the most difficult part of the project."

To acknowledge the contributions of the student artists, Blackwell not only gave each a credit line on their page, but also included in the book a group photo of all whose artwork was used.

"I wanted to make sure they were acknowledged and I thought the group photo was a neat way to do that," Blackwell says.

In the end, the AU trustee hopes that Auburn receives as much financial benefit from the project as he did enjoyment.

"I'd like to see the book sell well, of course," Blackwell says. "Not because of any personal reason-I've already gotten my satisfaction. But I'd like to see it generate some significant funds for the university. That would be a double payoff for me."

The 34-page book, which relates each letter of the alphabet to an Auburn tradition, is available at Auburn-area bookstores, including J&M, Anders, Big Blue and University.

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