14-year-old writes book about the Gulf Coast - WTVM.com-Columbus, GA News Weather & Sports

We know more about space than our oceans, but a local author is spreading the word about our gulf coast, and he's only 14.

"I have trouble writing," said Rory McCracken.

Don't let him fool you.   Rory McCracken knows his way around the keyboard.

"We had to do a personal essay in English this year," he said.

But he's not at his laptop for schoolwork. Rory is an author.

"We wrote this book, G is for Gulf."

It's an ABC book about life in the Gulf of Mexico.   But it's not this 14-year-old's first crack at raising awareness about his favorite topic.

Two years ago, Rory started an internet T-shirt company, Kids Love the Gulf, to raise money for the Louisiana Mammal and Sea Turtle Rescue Program.   Protecting his favorite animals in the wake of the BP oil spill.

"That was probably one of the only things I could do when I was 12 because they won't let a 12-year-old go out on the beach or in a boat to pick up oil," explained Rory.

With his T-shirts, Rory and his friends raised $8,000.   T-shirt sales dropped off, but Rory and his friends kept going.

"We just kinda just browsing around the internet, and you just find all this cool stuff."

The book is a collection of fun facts about animals and issues affecting life in and on the gulf that even some lifelong residents don't know.

"I grew up in Louisiana and never knew that there were whales in the Gulf of Mexico," said Meghan McCracken, Rory's mother.

Just as with his T-shirt business, Rory is not keeping a dime from his book sales.   For every two books he sells, he makes enough to donate one book to a local school library.

Rory hopes to sell enough books to get them in every middle school library on the coast.

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