SHELBY — Zac Church has always been obsessed with dinosaurs, so it was no surprise to his mother, Kate Church, that he would use this love to make up stories about one special dinosaur.
It started when Zac was 5 years old, and they were making regular trips for his therapy back
and forth between the Shelby area and the Cleveland Clinic. During the drive, Kate encouraged Zac to make up stories about his favorite topic: dinosaurs.
That’s how Splat was born.
Since then, Kate has published three books, a thriller and the first two in a fantasy trilogy, but at the time of Splat’s conception Kate was just a mom creating stories with her son in the car to pass the time.
“Zac’s hyperfocus is dinosaurs,” Kate Church said. “So, he fixates on that. That’s how he learns. Everything connects to that. That’s how he learns math; it’s how he’s learning division using dinosaurs and colors.”
At the age of five, Zac was diagnosed with autism and rather quickly Kate found the right therapy for him. But it meant a lot of driving and a lot of appointments.
As a single mom of two children, it required a lot of juggling of her schedule and working long hours on the days she didn’t have appointments.
For seven months, one day a week, they did the 90-minute drive to the Cleveland Clinic and back. During that time, Kate and Zac talked about Splat – the dinosaur he devised during their drives.
Kate taught him to break down Splat’s story into pieces.
“I’d say, ‘OK, Zac, it’s going to be in a forest. What’s going to happen in the forest? Is it nighttime?’”
Little by little, Zac would add an element, then Kate would add an element to encourage the next part for Zac.
“While he didn’t actually put pen to paper because he was 5, everything was Zac, with just me leading him through with questions.”
Kate feels Splat was Zac’s way of expressing his own feelings of being identified as unlike others, even though he doesn’t understand what autism is. He just knows that he’s special and that comes out in the way he portrays Splat.
After Kate took all of Zac’s ideas and put them down on paper, the project sat for a while as she struggled with how to get it illustrated.
“I used to do a lot of art, like drawing and painting, but mostly abstract work,” she said.
But Splat was outside her experience and Zac had a very clear idea of how he wanted Splat to look, so she went in search of an illustrator.
Kate found Caleb Peregrine online and knew he was the one to illustrate Splat.
Peregrine is from the United Kingdom and is a sought-after artist with an eclectic variety of artwork from animals to fantasy. He agreed to create Splat’s world. He also happens to be autistic.
“I saw his work online and just reached out to him,” Kate said. “We had a nice chat about his art and the project and he had no doubts about wanting to be a part of it.
“Having studied paleontology at University, he wanted to give the dinosaurs a more realistic feel, but he also connected to the story being autistic.”
Kate said Peregrine’s been very supportive and encouraging throughout the process.
On Saturday, Oct. 14, at 10:30 a.m., the Marvin Memorial Library will host a book launch of “Splat the Dinosaur” for Kate and Zac. Both mom and son will be in attendance to sign books.
Kate and Zac talked about what to do with the proceeds from the books because she felt Zac should be part of that process as well.
She suggested giving them to organizations that support autism. However, Zac said he wanted to use the proceeds to buy more books at the author’s cost and give them directly to people with autism.
“When a kid gets diagnosed with autism at the Learner Center for Autism, they will hand them the book,” she said. “When they come into New Hope and they’re a new client, they get a book.”
Kate decided to go with Zac’s idea.
A follow-up book is already written, and Kate hopes the first book will bring enough attention to allow for the second book to be published.
“The second one is more about change,” she said. “We have an ankylosaurus who loses his club at the end of his tail.”
In the second book, the ankylosaurus was the star of the dinosaur team (like a football team), but then loses his club and now must deal with this huge change in his life and the loss of popularity.
Splat the Dinosaur
Splat is a baby Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur who hatches from an egg to meet his bright red mother.
“His mother doesn’t see anything but the fact that he’s colored her world,” Kate said.
Splat then goes off to explore, looking for friendship, and continues to run into bullies who tell him he looks like a mess because of his colors.
Splat rolls in the mud to try to cover his colors. He goes back to them as a brown dinosaur and they’re nice to him until it rains, but the mud runs off and he’s colorful again.
Eventually Splat gives up and is sad and goes off by himself, feeling alone when he hears another dinosaur crying on the other side of a rock.
It turns out to be a bright yellow Parasaurolophus with red glasses. The other dinosaurs have been making fun of him because of his red glasses.
Caleb Peregrine
Caleb Peregrine is a 21-year-old living in the United Kingdom as a professional artist at the age of 21.
He’s been seriously painting since he was 14 when he painted the ocean, something most experienced painters don’t take on for many years.
When Kate Church contacted him about Zach’s dinosaur book, Caleb quickly agreed to the job.
“I was very honored to be such an integral part of such a beautiful book with an important and timeless message,” Peregrine said. “Growing up as an undiagnosed neurodivergent was a difficult and confusing time for me.
“Over the years, I learned just the same truths that children can now learn from Splat’s story.”
Peregrine found the message of being kind and friendly to all, no matter how different they may seem, something others need to learn about those with autism.
“I’d like to thank Kate and Zac for choosing me as their illustrator,” Peregrine said. “It was a wonderful experience and they were truly supportive during the entire process.
“Together, I know the story and my artwork will touch the hearts of everyone who opens this delightful storybook.”