A 13-year-old Coquitlam boy on a tour of the BC Interior is hoping to raise awareness and money for charity with his third book titled “Brandy and Her Super Hero”.
Nathan McTaggart wants to raise $1,500 each for Fire Fighters Without Borders Canada and the Pacific Assistance Dogs Society.
“The book is about a dog named Brandi getting separated from her family due to the forest fires and having agility training,” McTaggart said in Kamloops today. “So it helps out during the forest fires and gets reunited with her family at the end of the book.”
He got the idea in the summer of 2017 after learning about the BC wildfires that year, while on holiday in Ontario. While at a hockey camp in the Lower Mainland, McTaggart met a hockey player who had been displaced from Williams Lake because of the fires.
Brandi was based on his uncle’s dog, and McTaggart is hoping to one day raise $250,000 for various charities. He’s published three books in the last four years, the first coming at the age of 9.
“For this first book (Santa and His Super Hero), we raised $2,500 for the BC Burn Fund and $2,000 for other charities and we’ve probably sold more than 100 Brandi books in around a month,” he added. “The second book (Zippy and His Super Hero) raised money for the Canucks for Kids Charity.”
As he tours his province, McTaggart says it’s fun to meet new people in different cities.
“I went to the Burn Camp because of our first book and I read to people, and they actually used to get made fun of but then when they went to Burn Camp, they learned to express it, and it’s so cool to see people who’d usually get nervous and shy away, actually be out there,” he noted. “It’s so inspirational.”
McTaggart says first responders are his superheroes, and he’s hoping to meet as many of them as possible while out promoting his books.
The books are illustrated by McTaggart’s Grade IV teacher’s current classes each year, and he’s got plans to release two more books next year.
Since he has started writing his books, McTaggart has visited more than 100 fire halls in Canada, the state of Washington, New York City, and Mexico.
