Martin Elementary School Principal Thomas Wheeler holds his book "Raising a Stink."

Martin Elementary principal authors young adult novel

PARKERSBURG - A Wood County Schools principal has turned his love of storytelling and events from his own life into a book for young adults. 

Tom Wheeler, principal of Martin Elementary School in south Parkersburg, is the author of the self-published “Raising a Stink,” a book about small town life colliding with wildlife. 

In “Raising a Stink,” a fourteen-year-old boy named Sass finds himself entangled in the lives of a family of skunks and must come up with a plan to raise a lot of money in a short amount of time to take care of them.

Wheeler said his story has “three chunks of truth,” events drawn from his own life and the lives of family members, but much of the book is simply a fun and fanciful story about a young teen making a simple decision to take on a huge responsibility. 

“There are a lot of little true-to-life things,” he said. “The rest of the story is completely made up.”

Wheeler said the story in part is about growing up in a small town and a way of life today’s tweens and teens might not know.

“I don’t want to call it a ‘simpler time’ but in a lot of ways it was,” he said. “Everyone was playing outside. We rode our bikes everywhere. We had to be home in time for supper, and you knew it was time because it started getting dark.”

Wheeler says he already has a second book in the works set in the same time period and location and hopes to continue writing for as long as he can. 

“It’s a fun process, seeing how it all fits together start to finish,” he said. “There’s a feeling you get when you see the finished product. It’s very satisfying.”

“Raising a Stink” is available as an ebook on several platforms - Kobo, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble and Amazon. The print version can be purchased through Amazon.